Omicron Surge: U.S. Tops One Million New COVID Cases in Just Two Days; Wave of Walmart Stores Closed for Deep Cleaning
The United States totaled over one million new cases of COVID-19 in the period covering Wednesday through Thursday as the highly infectious Omicron variant–which for most will be a bad cold or flu–starts to take over as the dominant COVID strain. Even with relatively low hospitalizations and deaths compared to previous strains, the sheer volume of cases at one time with an overlap of the lingering more virulent Delta strain threatens to disrupt daily life for the coming month due to isolation and quarantine protocols. An indication of what’s ahead has been the cancellation of thousands of flights this past week and the abrupt closings of several Walmart stores around the country for deep cleaning at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
Data kept by Worldometer shows that on Tuesday the U.S. had 339,545 news cases, Wednesday, 471,742 and Thursday as of this writing, 527,974 with a few hours to go before the tally is closed for the day, marking over 1,000,000 new cases in just two days and over 1.3 million in three days.
Reports from around the country show Walmart stores in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana and other states have been closed for deep cleaning due to high COVID cases among staff.
The reports have a statement from Walmart that is the same excerpt for store location and specific closings and reopenings:
“As you know, several areas across the country have begun seeing a renewed increase in positive COVID-19 cases, and we want to assist health officials working against the pandemic. In support of this effort, we have chosen to temporarily close our New Haven store location at 315 Foxon Boulevard at 2 p.m. (Wednesday) as part of an ongoing company-initiated program. This will allow extra time for a third-party specialist to further sanitize the store and will also give our associates additional time to restock shelves and prepare the store to once again serve the community. We plan to reopen the store to customers at 6 a.m. on Friday, December 31,” the statement from Walmart says.
“Everything we’re doing is for the well-being of our associates and the thousands of customers we serve daily, and in consideration of guidance by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and health experts. We will
Source: The Gateway Pundit
