Beijing, January 1 (Xinhua) -- Affected by the rapid spread of the mutated new coronavirus Olmikeron strain, thousands of flights have been cancelled during the Us New Year's holiday and the cruise industry has been severely damaged. As the pandemic worsens, economists predict that the U.S. will face more problems in 2022, with worker shortages and rising prices exacerbating further.
According to Reuters, many pilots and crew members in the United States need to be quarantined due to the new crown, resulting in a shortage of manpower; coupled with poor weather conditions in some places, AMERICAN air operators have been forced to cancel a large number of flights.
Covid-19 testing signs at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A., on December 4, 2021. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Aaron)
According to FlightAware, which tracks flight real-time updates, more than 3,090 flights worldwide were cancelled on December 31, 2021, including nearly 1,550 domestic and international commercial flights in the United States. More than 8,650 flights worldwide have been delayed.
In addition, dozens of cruise ships in the United States have recently detected cases of new crown. According to Agence France-Presse, from December 15 to 29, 2021, 5,013 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been detected in U.S. territorial waters, a significant increase from 162 reported in the previous two weeks. Health departments have therefore warned Americans to avoid traveling by cruise ship, even after the full covid-19 vaccination process has been completed.
Diana Swank, an economist at Grant Thornton, warned on social media twitter that fears of infectious diseases have led to the cancellation of a large number of New Year's events and a decline in restaurant reservations, which is only part of the impact of the epidemic. Given the rising rate of COVID-19 infection, employers are facing a growing shortage of manpower.
On December 29, 2021, people lined up at COVID-19 testing points on the streets of New York, USA, waiting for testing. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wang Ying)
In an interview with AFP, Oxford Economics analyst Oren Krachkin said, "We are starting to see some initial signs that the Omiljung strain is having an impact on the economy, mainly in those areas where face-to-face interaction is most needed," particularly in the service sectors such as bars and restaurants.
In the view of economists, it is difficult to quantify the economic consequences of the Omiljun strain. Some economists worry that U.S. inflation, which has risen to its highest level in nearly 40 years, will worsen further if the Omilon strain further affects global manufacturing and transportation.
The recent acceleration of transmission of the Olmikron strain in the United States has seen a surge in confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the United States.
Reuters' aggregate data on December 31, 2021 showed that in the past eight days, the number of daily confirmed cases in the United States has doubled, and the average daily new cases have reached 329,000, a new high. Over the same period, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States rose by 32 percent, with Maryland, Ohio and Washington, D.C. setting new record highs. On December 30 last year, the number of daily confirmed cases in 23 us states and Washington, D.C., set a record high since the outbreak of the epidemic.
According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, the cumulative number of confirmed covid-19 cases in the United States so far is about 54.6 million, and the cumulative number of deaths is more than 825,000. (Liu Xi)