WHO warns of 'very high' Omicron risk as cases spike worldwide

GENEVA • Omicron still poses "very high" risk and could overwhelm healthcare systems, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday, as the highly transmissible coronavirus variant fuelled record outbreaks in many countries.

Worldwide Covid-19 cases were above one million for a second straight day on Tuesday. The world also hit a record number of Covid-19 infections in a seven-day period between Dec 22 and Tuesday, with more than 935,000 cases detected on average each day, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. The figures, the highest since the virus first emerged at the end of 2019, are based on tolls given daily by health authorities in each country.

Case numbers have shot up 11 per cent globally in the last week, forcing governments from China to Germany and France to find a difficult balance between anti-virus restrictions and the need to keep economies and societies open.

The Netherlands and Switzerland said Omicron had become the dominant strain in their countries, and while some studies suggested it causes milder Covid-19, the WHO urged caution.

"The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," the WHO agency said in its Covid-19 weekly epidemiological update.

"Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days."

Overall, Omicron appears to be triggering a lower rate of hospitalisations than earlier outbreaks. The WHO said early data from Britain, South Africa and Denmark - which currently has the world's highest rate of infection per person - suggested there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation for Omicron compared with Delta.

But it added that further data was needed to understand Omicron's severity. And despite those studies, Omicron's rapid growth "will still result in large numbers of hospitalisations, particularly amongst unvaccinated groups, and cause widespread disruption to health systems and other critical services", warned WHO Europe's Covid-19 incident manager Catherine Smallwood.

The Omicron variant is accounting for an increasing share of coronavirus infections in the US, though its climb to dominance has been shallower than earlier estimates indicated, according to an updated federal model.

Omicron accounted for an estimated 58.6 per cent of sequenced US virus cases in the week ending last Saturday, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Nowcast model showed on Tuesday, up from an estimated 22.5 per cent a week earlier. The once-dominant Delta variant accounted for 41.1 per cent of cases in the most recent period.

The week-earlier figure marks a substantial revision from a previous estimate, which said the Omicron variant was responsible for 73 per cent of sequenced infections.

President Joe Biden said the United States was generally well prepared, though some hospitals could be "overrun". The CDC has halved the isolation period for asymptomatic cases to try and limit disruptions and mass labour shortages.

Separately, the US Food and Drug Administration warned that rapid tests that are widely used to detect infections may miss some cases caused by Omicron, raising fears of false negative test results.

Europe was again one of the hot spots for the pandemic, which is known to have claimed more than 5.4 million lives around the world. France, Britain, Greece and Portugal all reported record daily case numbers on Tuesday. France reported almost 180,000 infections over 24 hours.

To hold back the tide, many nations on the continent have brought back curbs with heavy economic and social consequences.

Contact restrictions were in place in Germany for the second year in a row heading into the New Year, as Europe's biggest economy shut nightclubs and forced sports competitions to take place behind closed doors.

It also limited private gatherings to 10 vaccinated people, or two households where any unvaccinated people are present.

Thousands of people across Germany gathered for illegal protests against the government's rules and the prospect of a vaccine mandate.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government is set to decide tomorrow on extending tighter virus curbs imposed on Dec 18, which were due to expire on Sunday.

Finland on Tuesday said it would bar unvaccinated foreign travellers from entering. Only residents, essential workers or diplomats will be exempt.

The Nordic country, like Sweden, had begun requiring negative tests for incoming non-resident travellers from Tuesday, a day after Denmark applied the same measure.

But the Belgian government's plans to introduce further restrictions were thwarted as a court suspended an order closing entertainment venues. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo had announced the original measure on Dec 22 as Belgium saw a sharp increase in the percentage of tests showing the Omicron variant.

In the Americas, Mexico City's mayor on Tuesday cancelled the capital's massive New Year's Eve celebrations as a preventative measure after a rise in Covid-19 cases.

The Covid-19 spikes around the world have also caused severe disruptions to travel over the holidays, with thousands of flights cancelled worldwide.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE