VOA健康报道2022 奥密克戎传播放缓 卫生官员带来希望（在线收听）

World health officials are offering hope that the slowing spread of Omicron may lead to a weakening of the COVID-19 pandemic. But officials also warn of hard weeks ahead and the possibility of another, more dangerous variant appearing.

世界卫生官员给人们带来了希望，奥密克戎传播放缓可能会导致新冠肺炎大流行的减弱。但是官员们也警告说，未来几周会很艰难，还有可能会出现更危险的变种。

In the United States, daily case numbers are dropping sharply. The same thing happened weeks earlier in Britain and South Africa. Researchers predict a period of low spread in many countries by the end of March.

美国每日新增病例开始急剧下降。同样的事情还发生在几周前的英国和南非。研究人员预测，到3月底前，许多国家都将会出现一段缓慢的传播期。

This week, the World Health Organization said in a statement it expects the "emergency phase" of the pandemic to end this year. It also said the Omicron variant offers "hope for...normalization."

世卫组织本周在一份声明中表示，预计大流行的“紧急阶段”将会在今年结束。它还表示，奥密克戎变种带来了“常态化的希望。”

Also this week, U.S. health official Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on the television program "This Week" on ABC. He said COVID-19 case numbers could fall to low enough levels that the U.S. could get "back to a degree of normality."

同样是在本周，美国卫生官员安东尼·福奇博士参加了美国广播公司的《本周》电视节目。他说，新冠肺炎病例数可能会下降到足够低的水平，让美国可以“恢复到某种程度的正常状态。”

Fauci leads the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

福奇领导了美国国家过敏和传染病研究所，也是拜登总统的首席医疗顾问。

Both Fauci and the WHO's Europe director, Dr. Hans Kluge, warned that new variants are likely to appear. But they believe that vaccines, new drug treatments, testing and masks will help keep life more normal during future surges.

福奇和世卫组织欧洲区主任汉斯·克鲁格博士都警告说可能会出现新的变种。但是他们认为，疫苗、新药疗法、检测以及口罩将有助于在未来病例激增期间保持生活更加正常。

In the U.S., new cases are averaging a still extraordinarily high 680,000 a day. That is down from an all-time high of over 800,000 a little more than a week ago.

美国日均新增病例数量仍达到畸高的68万例。这比一个多星期前的超80万例的历史高点有所下降。

The places in the U.S. where omicron first spread are seeing the sharpest drops. U.S. hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 have dropped about 7 percent from the week before. That information comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

美国奥密克戎最先传播的地区出现的跌幅最大。美国新冠肺炎确诊患者的住院人数比前一周下降了约7%。该信息来自于美国疾控预防中心。

Dr. Christopher Murray is with the University of Washington. He developed the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model. The model shows all nations will be past the Omicron wave by the middle of March. The wave will leave behind high levels of immunity – both from infection and vaccination. This could lead to low levels of spread for many weeks or months.

克里斯托弗·默里博士就职于华盛顿大学。他壮大了健康指标和评估模型研究所。模型显示所有国家都将在3月中旬之前度过奥密克戎爆发。这波爆发将会留下高水平的免疫力，无论是来自于感染还是疫苗接种。这可能会导致数周甚至数月的传播放缓。

Murray's model also estimates that 57 percent of the world's population already has been infected with the virus at least once.

默里的模型还估计，全球57%的人口已经至少感染过一次新冠病毒。

A research group at Pennsylvania State University also predicts a strong drop in the U.S. by April. But the appearance of a new variant that is less affected by growing levels of immunity could change that.

宾夕法尼亚州立大学的一个研究小组还预测，美国到4月份将会出现大幅下降。但是若出现一种受免疫水平提高影响很小的新变体，这一切就会改变。

"It would be dangerous to forget that possibility, as it has caught us before," said Katriona Shea. She leads the team that develops the models.

卡特里奥娜·谢伊表示：“忘记这种可能性是很危险的，因为我们有过前车之鉴。”她领导了该模型的开发团队。

Shea also noted that the models show 16,000 to 98,000 more Americans dying before the Omicron wave is over. COVID-19 has killed almost 870,000 people in the United States already. Deaths from the disease around the world total more than 5.5 million.

谢伊还指出，模型显示在奥密克戎爆发结束之前，还会有1.6万到9.8万名美国人死亡。新冠肺炎已经在美国造成87万人死亡。全球死于这种疾病的人数超过了550万。