Covid19: Europe Experiences Surge in Cases, WHO Says Omicron Spreads Faster Than Delta

• The World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that Omicron's fast spread is concerning
• Many countries worldwide have shown a rapid surge in Covid-19 infections recently, which is attributed to the highly transmissible trait of Omicron
• In the past week there have been 65.5 million new cases reported worldwide, with the US, Italy, France and Denmark recording a dramatic rise in infections

PARIS - Yesterday (29 December), the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the highly transmissible nature of the Omicron variant is causing a "tsunami" of Covid-19 cases, which has broken records.

In the past week, there have been 65.5 million new cases reported worldwide. Denmark, the United States (US) and France have reported that their current number of Covid-19 infections surpasses all previously recorded data.

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of the WHO, said that Omicron's ever-rising figures can soon create a situation where the healthcare systems of different countries are unable to cope and workers will be over-exhausted, EWN reports.

Covid-19 and Omicron around the world

In the US there is a shortage of tests, which has raised fears that more people may have Covid-19 than the official recorded figure states. However, those cases that are known have a tendency to be mild.

From Friday (31 December) people in Paris will be legally required to resume wearing face masks in public, with the exemption of vehicles and sports. Cases in France have doubled since Christmas Day.

According to SABC News, Italy has 98 030 new Covid-19 infections and 148 Covid-related deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 Italy has had a total of 137 091 deaths.

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Reactions to new Covid-19 global figures

@indiamusings asked:

"Why is this important?"

@BarrieGeriLead said:

"Science, solutions, solidarity key to resolution. Solidarity can be improved through improved global equity and addressing the misinformation being promoted. Until then, new variants run the risk of emerging. Solidarity is the key missing piece to ending this pandemic."

@spiralisation believes:

"Well, governments and media made a big deal out of testing for the holidays. Many more people testing = many more cases."

@GrumpAdam said:

"Percent positivity is a better indicator of risk."

@WikiDocJames shared:

"3x Get vaccinated / boosted. Wear a proper mask. Social distance as much as possible!"

New self-isolation rules for SA dropped, government waiting for input before making a decision

In other Omicron-related news, yesterday Briefly News reported that on 23 December the Department of Health stated that the practice of contact tracing will end and that people who have asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 do not have to self-isolate.

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However, on 28 December the department released a retraction of their previous statement, saying that they are waiting to receive more input from different health officials and global organisations before deciding if they will implement the previously released measures.

Therefore the protocols and rules that were in place before 23 December are still in effect. This means that people who test positive for Covid-19 need to self-isolate and inform people they have recently been in contact with to get tested

Source: Briefly News