Omicron surge sees Europe setting new virus records daily

LONDON • Across Europe, records for new coronavirus infections are being set day after day, as the Omicron variant tears through populations with a swiftness outpacing anything witnessed over the past two years of the pandemic.

Like the United States, which recorded a new high in daily cases on Tuesday, European nations are struggling against an onslaught of infections from a virus that shows no sign of going away.

Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain all set records for new daily case counts this week and health officials suspect that this is driven by the Omicron variant.

On Wednesday, Ireland became the latest to smash its previous infection record, reporting 16,428 new cases as those requiring hospital treatment also began to rise.

There are early indications that the variant might be milder than previous versions of the virus - with vaccinations, boosters and previous infections all offering some protection against serious illness and death.

But the surge of infections is causing chaos, as people scramble to obtain tests, businesses grapple with staff shortages and New Year's festivities are thrown into question.

In England and Northern Ireland on Wednesday, there were no PCR test appointments available to book online and, around midday, many people reported that none were available to order online through the British government's health services.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, a British organisation representing community pharmacies, said the uptick in cases and a recent shift on government guidelines around testing have led to a surge in demand for rapid lateral-flow tests.

"We have people coming in every two to five minutes asking for lateral-flow testing," she said. "And we don't know when it's going to arrive back in stock, and it's completely out of our control."

In Spain - which is reporting roughly 100,000 daily infections for the first time in the pandemic - contact-tracing efforts are being overwhelmed and people are queuing up outside hospitals urgently seeking tests so that they can be approved for medical leave.

Although Spain is not yet seeing a sharp rise in people needing intensive care, Dr Mario Fontan of the Spanish Epidemiology Society said that concerns over infection were rising.

"A sensation of greater chaos has been created compared with the severity that the clinical picture requires," he said.

Portugal had one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, reaching nearly every person eligible and driving down the toll wrought by the Delta variant. But infections are climbing again, too, with Health Minister Marta Temido warning that cases could double every eight days, given the current trend of Omicron infections.

Even in the Netherlands, which nearly two weeks ago reimposed a nationwide lockdown, Omicron is spreading rapidly, causing more than 50 per cent of infections in the past week and replacing Delta as the dominant variant, according to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.

"The faster spread of this Omicron variant will lead to additional infections in the near future, which will also increase the number of hospital admissions," the institute said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Dutch foreign ministry said all travellers from the United States - which is also setting daily records of infection - will have to quarantine for five days and have to present a negative coronavirus test in order to enter the country.

And, for many other countries, the wave is only starting to rise.

In France - which set a record of 208,000 new daily cases on Wednesday, the most recorded in any European country since the pandemic began - Health Minister Olivier Veran said the increase was "dizzying".

"This means that 24 hours a day, day and night, every second in our country, two French people are diagnosed positive," he said.

Even though Germany reported a doubling of Omicron cases over the past week, its Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said that the true number of new coronavirus cases has been under-reported.

He said that fewer people are testing over the holidays and that the actual incidence rate of infections is about two or three times higher.

NYTIMES