month. and the disruptions are a far cry from what happened in march 2020 when the entire u.s. cruise industry had to shut down because of the pandemic. and there were peeks where there were efforts to get passengers and crew on board those ships to get them home as ports were closed as vessels were hit by outbreaks of covid. it s not just the u.s., the omicron variant is fueling surges in covid cases around the world. in israel, the prime minister is self-isolating after his daughter tested positive. this as israel sees a spike in new infections. in south africa, where the variant was first detected, a top scientist says the country has passed its omicron peak. officials are relaxing rules for people exposed to the virus. in the uk, new data shows vaccine uptick soared ahead of
this variant will slow economic growth and slow demand for oil and gas so you could see gas prices continue to cool off in the days ahead because of this. this is really what markets fear, it seems, right? the restarting of another vaccine process? absolutely. this is why vaccine uptick has been important for the financial picture here, right. every person who is unvaccinated is a potential breeding ground for mutations in these variants. when you have slow uptick of convenience, that is a challenge for financial markets. they want to see a vaccinated global population, right? we can start top get back to normal and have some certainty about doing business, keeping factories open, being able to travel, being able to go to school. all of this depends on getting this virus under control. . i wanted to ask you separately about these smash and grab thefts of groups of people going into stores.
emergency temporary stand, they re saying test your employees weekly or mandate the vaccine, that order is still waiting an issuance. it is still going through rounds of it ration with the white house. once that happens, the devil is in the details, there will be a lot of friction for them not to mandate the vaccine. once children have access less than 12 years of age, you re going to see those rates really deline there. that s really going to get this country up to a very high level of vaccine uptick. let s talk also about the boosters. we expect that this will tleed a final vorgs for boosters. is that mostly for johnson and johnson patients? or is there an advantage for
more adequate campaign to get more people vaccinated, more advocacy. reporter: and 38 regions in russian have now mandated mandatory vaccine requirements for public-facing roles. and as we continue nearer into these winter months, there s a question of whether the government will take tougher measures in terms of extending that vaccine mandate to others, as some other countries across europe have done, as well as the potential for a lockdown again. now, russia has said the officials have said that they aren t seeking another lockdown. some lawmakers have described this as unreasonable at this stage. and like many countries across the globe, going into lockdown is not the ideal scenario. it s put enormous pressure on the economy and social life. so that s something officials are keen to avoid. it s something people are keen to avoid, but yet this vaccine uptick in russia is still low and poses a real threat as we move on to these winter months. the problem with the lockdowns, it s v
restaurants and bars and clubs. but just last year, polls reflected that many people were not keen to get that jab. and president macron announced that there would be the health pass, we saw that vaccine uptick surge. so there is a example of these kind of measures encourage people to go out asand get that vaccine. it seems universal that there is a vaccine uptick when they have those mandates. nadia, appreciate the update. a close ally of venezuela strongman nicolas maduro has been taken into custody, accused of money laundering. and it now looks likes craracas are retaliating. they were picked up on saturday hours after alex saab, a key colombian financier that