New COVID variant spreads as world starts to ditch restrictions
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Just as mandates end and more people are taking off their masks, another COVID variant is spreading, causing cases to rise around the world.
Self-isolation. Mass testing, and lockdowns. China is facing its worst outbreak since the pandemic first emerged in Wuhan two years ago.
The country is reporting 10,000 new cases just this month. And it comes as many other places around the world are ditching restrictions.
"We're ready to welcome the world back," said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden.
And now dealing with a new subvariant of the virus. BA2 is 30 percent more transmissible than Omicron but doesn't seem to be more severe. It could be why nearly half of European countries have seen cases rise.
Almost three weeks after the U.K. dropped its last COVID rules, cases have spiked more than 50 percent and hospitalizations are up too.
Hospital workers in Ukraine find themselves on two frontlines: fighting the virus in intensive care units as the war rages outside.
With refugees flooding out in cramped spaces, concern about outbreaks is growing -- fewer than 35 percent of Ukrainians are fully vaccinated.
"I don't want to say that it is not as serious anymore, it has been overpowered by war," said Anastasia Utechenko, Ukrainian refugee.
At the borders, there's no covid testing. The virus has taken a backseat to survival.
The BA2 variant now makes up nearly a quarter of new infections among Americans but daily cases and hospitalizations here in the U.S. continue to drop.