Page 22 - Delta Wave News Today

Said because theres a relatively low rate of hospitalization and death, even now nearly a month after the variant was identified by south african scientists, they are not installing new restrictions. theres still a mask mandate in this country for public spaces. that has been in place for many, many months but there isnt the tight restrictions that we saw early on in the pandemic or the restrictions being put in place because of omicron in israel, parts of europe and potentially in the u.k. the ...

The mayor here, bill de blasio, says the white house should invoke the defense production act to help provide a larger number of at-home tests. he wants monoclonal antibody treatments stepped up. he also said the biden administration should fast track approval of an anti-viral pill from pfizer. what do you think are the steps that can be taken right now, knowing that christmas is just, what, five days away. theres only so much that you can do between now and christmas day. >> yeah, well, chris, ...

Minister says hospitalizations are up but still lower than previous waves. and our david mckenzie is in johannesburg. he joins us now live. david, despite a wave of omicron infections in south africa, hospitalization rates are still lower than previous waves. and theres a lack of any new restrictions. whats going on here? how do they explain this? >> rosemary, first the situation. currently there are a very high number of cases in south africa. in fact the positivity rate overnight was more than...

Of the pandemic. we have the problem that it rapidly spreads, so fast that even though it might not be causing so much sickness, but the amount of people being infected, we will have a massive wave of patients being expected in hospital, as we saw in the fourth wave. and what are you seeing on the ground in intensive care? because you have had such a terrible delta wave to deal with, now youve got this on top. yes. so at the moment, we only see rare cases of omicron but if you look around at the...

Say that two doses will give you significant protection against severe disease, because studies have also come out looking at the t cell side of our immune response, which really helps determine some of the protection against severe disease, and that doesnt seem to be as affected. but having said that, i would encourage everybody to get a booster. the data is clear. the booster helps restore some of the protection against infection, and it most certainly also increases your protection against se...

Of this is to break it down into the individual components. otherwise, it just becomes as overwhelming momorass, and its hard to think you way through it. theres three things going on at the same time. first of all, youre seeing what we already predicted, a delta wave in the winter, just like we saw in the summer in the southern united states. now youre seeing a delta wave, and thats going to take over the rest of the country, just like covid-19 wave last winter. wasnt delta at that time. it was...

Omicron is, is still in flux. >> reporter: there is some preliminary data that suggests it could be mild. first, early lab studies have found omicron may not attack the lungs like other variants. >> omicron replicates, multiplies in the upper airway and less well in the lung >> reporter: second, in south africa where omicron first took off, the headlines this weekend are stoking optimism hospitalizations are down 91% >> we can say one thing, its not more severe what they have seen in south afric...

Infections in cities and long lines of people waiting hours to get tested. today, the nhl and nba, and nfl all had to rearrange their plans as players tested positive. the infections nationwide are on top of the still ongoing delta wave that is taking more than one thousand lives a day if you are exhausted by all of this, who isnt, think of the health care workers. we know you have a lot of questions on what to do in the days leading up to christmas and the holidays themselves. first, kathy park...

A few moments ago? >> actually, jim, somewhere in between. its helpful if you understand its three major components. first components. we were expecting a delta wave, because weve not done a good enough job vaccinating the country. only 60% have gotten two doses. that means the unvaccinated, weve got a -- were going to pile into hospitals anyway because of delta. thats point one. point two is we have the omicron variant superimposed. a lot of us were hopeful it would have a four to six-week lag ...

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