In Brief : Italian hospitals under strain as cases surge

ROME • As daily coronavirus infections in Italy hit new highs, hospital admissions across the country are surging once again due to the new Omicron variant and the persisting reluctance among some to get vaccinated.

At Rome's Casalpalocco Covid hospital, the situation has been serious for about a month, medical director Antonino Marchese said.

Of the facility's 120 beds, 111 are filled by virus-stricken patients.

Almost three-quarters of the hospital's Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated, and some resist intubation when taken to the intensive care unit. Although 85.8 per cent of the country's population over the age of 12 have been fully inoculated, there remain roughly six million unvaccinated over-12s, according to official data.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

---

England building temporary hospitals

LONDON • England is building temporary hospitals to help cope with rising coronavirus cases, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday issued a stark warning to those not fully vaccinated.

The new "surge hubs" would deal with a potential overspill of inpatients as surging virus cases put the country's health service on a "war footing", according to officials.

Fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, daily cases have ballooned, standing at more than 189,000 on Thursday.

The National Health Service (NHS) said it would provide extra beds in structures in the grounds of eight hospitals in cities including London, Bristol and Leeds from this week, with each designed to house around 100 extra patients.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

---

Record cases in US for second day in a row

NEW YORK • With more than 580,000 cases on Thursday, the United States has shattered its own record for new daily coronavirus cases, beating a milestone it already broke just the day before.

Thursday's count, according to The New York Times' database, toppled the 488,000 new cases on Wednesday, which was nearly double the highest numbers from last winter.

Hospitalisations and deaths, however, have not followed the same dramatic increase, further indication that the Omicron variant seems to be milder than Delta and causes fewer cases of severe illness.

NYTIMES

---

1m Covid-19 deaths in Eastern Europe

LONDON • Coronavirus deaths in Eastern Europe topped one million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the Omicron variant threatened to batter the region.

Three out of the five countries reporting the highest number of daily deaths in Europe are from the East, including Russia, Poland and Ukraine, Reuters data through Thursday showed.

The death toll in Eastern Europe reached 1,045,454 on Thursday, compared with 1,873,253 in all of Europe.

REUTERS