The US metropolis New York relies on tough corona rules. More than 1,400 city employees are jobless – they were not vaccinated.
Around half a year after the introduction of compulsory coronavirus vaccination, the metropolis of New York fired 1,430 city employees who did not comply. Almost all of these employees have been on unpaid leave for several months, Mayor Eric Adams said.
The approximately 300,000 city employees, including police officers and employees of authorities and the fire brigade, had until last Friday to be vaccinated against the corona virus, otherwise they were threatened with dismissal. Mayor Adams said it was great that so many employees followed the guidelines. “Our goal was to vaccinate, not fire, and the city staff went along with it and achieved the goal that was set for them.”
Global case numbers have fallen by almost a fifth
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new corona cases worldwide has fallen by almost a fifth in the past week. Between February 7th and 13th, around 16 million cases were reported to the UN organization in Geneva – 19 percent fewer than in the week before, as the WHO announced on Tuesday evening in its latest corona statistics.
The preliminary peak of the pandemic was reached in the last week of January with more than 22 million cases. After that, the numbers started falling in early February.
Only in the Pacific did infections increase
Last week, fewer new cases were reported from almost all regions. Only in the Western Pacific region with East Asia and Oceania did the number increase.
However, the WHO not only reported a decline in corona cases, but also a steady increase in BA.2, a sub-variant of the omicron virus variant that can be transmitted even more quickly. BA.2 accounted for more than a fifth of all omicron cases analyzed worldwide in early February. BA.2 is on the rise in countries with both rising and falling omicron waves.
