The horror scenes are unforgettable when, in the spring of 2020, New York City transformed from a pulsating metropolis into the apparent backdrop of a Hollywood disaster film within days.
Deserted streets. Then the ambulances came first, then the hearses. Cooled trucks parked in front of the hospitals buzzed to store the deceased. In funeral homes, corpses were settled in white sacks in the mortuary. The Big Apple suffered the worst corona outbreak in the entire pandemic.
The scenes on the Christmas holidays in 2021 weren’t quite as terrifying. But a similar tension is spreading: New York City has once again become a “hotspot” at breakneck speed – this time the Omikron variant of the coronavirus.
The drama offers a preview of countries towards which the variant is still rolling – such as Germany. The numbers are alarming: around 18,000 infections were reported on Christmas Eve in New York.
The pandemic is a record for the city!
Photo: DIEU-NALIO CHERY/REUTERS-“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/weil-so-viele-piloten-krank-sind-wurden-ueber-weihnachten-hunderte-fluege-gestrichen-3fd64f67faa0430ba11fda0352da0fa9-78651668/Bild/ 4.bild.jpg “/>
Hundreds of flights were canceled over Christmas because so many pilots are sickPhoto: DIEU-NALIO CHERY/REUTERS
–
–
Since the test centers will not offer full capacity again until Monday after the Christmas weekend, further massive increases are expected. The trend in the infection curve has already been frightening: it went up almost vertically!
In some districts of Manhattan, 337 infections per 100,000 people were recorded.
Omikron is a “very, very contagious variant,” warned the governor of New York State, Kathy Hochul (63).
“It’s oppressive because you notice every day how the infections are piling up among friends,” says wine consultant Andrea Fraccari to BILD: “It feels like half the city has already been infected …”
He suspects a touch of fatalism: “Most believe that they will eventually get infected anyway …” It can be observed that precautionary measures would be less observed.
Despite the worrying situation, Mayor Bill de Blasio (60) has not yet imposed any new lockdowns.
But due to the many infections and the associated quarantine, life in the city has also slowed down. More than a third of Broadway shows have been canceled so far. Many restaurants and bars have closed their gates. Often there is a lack of staff. But also to the customers, after many frightened people forego going out.
Corona chroniclers are already talking about a “soft lockdown” …
When someone can be seen, it is mostly holidaymakers who do not want to miss out on sightseeing. At the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, for example, crowds stood in line for hours.
The longest queues in New York are usually in front of corona test centers. The bottlenecks in the test capacities illustrate that authorities and politicians have been caught off guard by the force of the virus wave.
There was such a scuffle in Brooklyn when it came to giving out free tests that police had to intervene.
The emergency services are also badly affected: 19 percent of the 4,000 ambulance drivers called in sick, with the police (NYPD) it was 7.8 percent of the officers (2,712 police officers). The fire brigade has to do without ten percent of the workforce.
The former breath of death over the world metropolis is missing: around 15 New Yorkers are currently killed every day. For comparison: on the deadliest day of the first corona wave in April 2020, there were almost 800 deaths. Intensive care beds are also still available.
Photo: SPENCER PLATT / AFP-“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/immer-wieder-endet-es-gerangel-um-gratistests–wie-hier-in-brooklyn-e3890d1bb1e14dbe9b55be6dc6ba9c56-78651674/Bild/4 .bild.jpg “/>
There is always a scramble for free tests – like here in BrooklynPhoto: SPENCER PLATT / AFP
–
–
High vaccination rate in New York helps
Solid vaccination rates in New York seem to help prevent the high numbers of infections from triggering new mass deaths: 71 percent of the population are fully vaccinated and a further 8.7 percent are at least partially. 30 percent received a booster dose. According to experts, the preparations should largely prevent severe disease progression even with the Omikron variant.
What is alarming, however, is that four times as many children end up in hospitals compared to the period before the Omikron wave. Half of them are younger than five.
It would hardly be New York if there weren’t moments of confidence even during this overshadowed Christmas season!
The Broadway understudy, Kathy Voytko, became a star overnight: she only had a few hours to prepare when she had to step in for the leading actress in the musical “The Music Man”, who suffered from Covid-19 – but she delighted the audience with a moving one Power. The star of the performance, Hugh Jackman (53), said visibly touched: “True superheroes don’t wear capes …”
– .
