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New York subway driver with mask
Photo: ANDREW KELLY / REUTERS
A good 40,000 people in the US state of New York are currently infected with the coronavirus every day, most of them in New York City - and with the highly infectious Omicron variant.
This rapid expansion has consequences: on local transport, on the emergency services, on clinics and shops in the city.
An entire subway line connecting Queens with Manhattan was closed because so many employees were sick, reported the New York Times.
There were therefore delays on other lines.
According to the report, the emergency services are also affected by the Omikron wave.
Almost a third of the paramedics are on sick leave.
The population had been asked to only use the emergency number in real emergencies.
Allegedly, numerous mildly ill people had previously reported who wanted to be brought to the clinic for a corona test by ambulance.
Location better than a year ago
According to the New York Times, shops are also already affected by the rapid spread of the virus, and authorities have restricted their services.
Numerous shops remained closed even without a lockdown, the newspaper quotes a bar owner where about a fifth of the staff is sick.
Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose term ends at midnight on New Year's Eve, allows the annual New Year's Eve celebrations to take place in Times Square in the heart of the city.
However, the number of viewers was drastically limited to 15,000.
Successor Eric Adams wants to take his oath of office there that night.
This is probably due to the fact that Omikron hits a lot of people at the same time, but the gradients are often milder than with the Delta variant.
Accordingly, New York's Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul emphasized in the middle of the week: "Thanks to vaccinations and booster vaccinations, our fight against the pandemic is going better than last Christmas."
Nevertheless, she appealed to take the refreshments seriously and to adhere to hygiene rules.
According to her, 95 percent of adult New Yorkers are now vaccinated at least once.
This could also be due to the fact that de Blasio was the first nationwide to introduce mandatory vaccination for all employees in the public and private sectors in his city.
Violations can result in high fines.
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