The second largest city in the United States cancelled New Year’s Eve celebrations on Monday, and its smallest state re-mandatory to wear masks indoors because the omicron variant surpassed other variants and became the main version of the US coronavirus

The actions in Los Angeles and Rhode Island reflect concerns about a potentially devastating winter surge of COVID-19. Most of the concerns are caused by omicron. Federal health officials announced that 73% of the new infections last week were omicron, an increase of nearly six-fold in just 7 days.

Federal officials stated that the prevalence of Omicron is even higher in some parts of the United States. It is estimated that 90% of new infections in the New York area, Southeastern, Industrial Midwest, and Pacific Northwest are caused by it.

The announcement emphasized the extraordinary ability of this variant to span oceans and continents. It was first reported in Southern Africa less than a month ago.

Scientists say that omicron spreads more easily than other coronavirus strains, including delta, although many details about it are still unknown, including whether it causes more or less serious diseases. But even if it is mild, the new variants may still overwhelm the health system due to the sheer number of infections.

The organizers of the New Year’s Eve party planned to be held in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles rejected the plan for the live audience, saying that the event would be changed to live broadcast, just like last year. In Rhode Island, which has the highest number of new cases per capita in the past two weeks, most indoor venues need to wear a mask or provide a vaccination certificate for at least the next 30 days.

In Boston, the city’s new Democratic mayor announced in protest that starting next month, anyone who enters restaurants, bars, or other indoor businesses will need to produce a vaccination certificate. City employees will also be required to be vaccinated.

“There is nothing more American than uniting to ensure that we take care of each other,” Mayor Michel Wu said at the city hall, as the protesters whistled loudly and chanted “Shame on Wu.”

Erika Rusley, a 44-year-old resident of Providence, Rhode Island, said that recent incidents prompted her family to apply the brakes during daily activities.

The elementary school teacher and her doctor husband pulled their two young daughters from swimming lessons this week, restricted their play dates and cancelled medical appointments, even though the whole family was vaccinated.

“In the past week or so, we really just shut everything down. It’s not worth it,” Rasley said. “We are back to the state before summer and before vaccination. It’s almost exactly the same.”

In New York City, the surge in infections has interrupted Broadway shows and caused long lines at the test center. It is expected that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will decide this week whether the city’s famous Times Square New Year’s Eve will “go all out” “As he promised in November.

North of the border, Quebec, Canada, requires restaurants to close at 10 pm, prohibits spectators from participating in sports events, closes stadiums and schools, and enforces remote work.

The World Economic Forum on the other side of the Atlantic announced on Monday that it will once again postpone the annual meeting of world leaders, business executives and other elites in Davos, Switzerland.

But in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that officials have decided not to impose further restrictions, at least for now.

Earlier this month, the conservative government re-mandatory wearing masks in shops and ordered people to show vaccination certificates in nightclubs and other crowded places. It is weighing curfews and stricter social distancing requirements.

“We will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public,” he said. “Either way, the arguments are very, very balanced.”

Johnson’s warning gave government leaders a sigh of relief at the unpleasant choice: to destroy the holiday plans of millions of people for the second year in a row, or to face potential cases and waves of destruction.

In the United States, President Joe Biden plans to address the country on the latest version on Tuesday, less than a year after he hinted that the country will basically return to normal before Christmas.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president will issue a “stern warning” and made it clear that people who have not been vaccinated “will continue to cause hospitalization and death,” she said.

American vaccine manufacturer Moderna announced on Monday that laboratory tests have shown that the booster dose of its vaccine should provide protection against omicron. Similar tests conducted by Pfizer on its vaccines also found that the booster triggered a substantial increase in anti-micromolecular antibodies.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the country has an average of nearly 130,500 new COVID-19 cases per day, up from approximately 122,000 per day two weeks ago.

In Texas, a hospital system in Houston reported that omicron already accounts for 82% of the new symptomatic COVID-19 cases it is treating, a sharp increase compared to Friday, when tests showed that it was only responsible for the system 45% of cases.

But according to the state’s Department of Health and Advanced Services, in Missouri, the early epicenter of the delta’s surge, the mutation still accounts for 98% to 99% of COVID-19 samples.

At the same time, Ohio hospitals have postponed elective surgery, and the governors of Maine and New Hampshire have sent National Guard reinforcements in recent days to help troubled hospital staff.

In Kansas, rural hospitals are working hard to transfer patients, and some people are trapped in the emergency room for a week while waiting for beds. Overwhelmed hospitals as far away as Minnesota and Michigan have been calling for large hospitals in Kansas to find beds. There is usually no room at all.

“It’s crazy when you talk about transferring people from Minnesota to Kansas City for treatment,” said Dr. Richard Watson, the founder of the company that signed a contract with Kansas to help manage the transfer.

Despite this, many political leaders are still reluctant to take the drastic measures they took in the early stages of the pandemic.

France is desperately avoiding new blockade measures, which will damage the economy and cast a shadow over President Emmanuel Macron’s anticipated reelection campaign. However, the Paris government has banned public concerts and fireworks displays during the New Year’s celebrations.

Ireland imposes a curfew at 8 pm on bars and bars and restricts participation in indoor and outdoor activities, while Greece will have 10,000 police officers on duty during the holidays to conduct COVID-19 inspections.

For the Rusley family in Rhode Island, the news is worrying, but not enough to prevent them from visiting her husband’s family in Denver.

They flew out after Christmas, but decided to stay indoors only with vaccinated people during this holiday, which they had not considered a few months ago.

“We have been here before and we know how to do this,” Rasley said. “We will not hide at home, but at the same time, we will not take unnecessary risks.”