For a second year in a row, Covid is causing headaches for holidays travelers across the US, new infections spreading like wildfire have sparked staffing shortages resulting in long delays and cancelations. New Covid infections exceeded two hundred thousand a day over the past two weeks, that’s up sixty-nine percent. Covid deaths are on the rise too.

Here at LAX, more than two hundred thousand people are expected to pass through today alone. A lot of those flyers are unhappy about delays and cancelations cutting into their vacation time. Covid cancelations hit US airports for the third straight day, with more than seven thousand flights grounded, stranding passengers on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. Thousands eager to take flight found themselves facing cancelations delays as airlines had more sick calls and staffing shortages. Delta and United, with some most planes grounded, pointed to Omicron exposure as a cause. Major airports affected included New York’s Kennedy, Atlanta, LAX and Newark, New Jersey. But despite the cancelations, more than three million took to the skies since Christmas Eve. The cruise industry is also facing Covid disruptions, at least three cruise lines had outbreaks on board in less than a week, dozens of passengers tested positive and forced to quarantine. And more cancelations are expected on domestic and also international flights. Adding to that frustration, and the anxiety for flyers with the fast-spreading Omicron variant is the difficulty to social distance.

Now to the surge of Omicron Covid variant, one in four hospitals with ICUs reported at least 95% capacity this week. And the Omicron spike shows no sign of slowing.

:::tip apartheid

• : racial segregation. 种族隔离制度

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