World hits record Covid cases in a week as WHO warns over Omicron
The WHO says further data is needed to understand Omicron's severity. PHOTO | AFP
Paris. The world hit a record number of Covid infections in a week, an AFP tally revealed Wednesday, as the WHO warned that Omicron poses a "very high" risk and could yet overwhelm healthcare systems
The highly transmissible variant has seen case records in multiple countries and registered infections were up 37 percent globally from December 22-28 compared to the previous seven-day period, according to the AFP tally based on national databases.
A total of 6.55 million cases were detected between 22-28 December, the highest figures since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020.
The surge, currently worst in Europe, has forced governments to walk a tightrope between re-imposing restrictions designed to stop hospitals becoming overwhelmed and the need to keep economies and societies open two years after the virus first emerged in late 2019.
Studies suggest Omicron, now the dominant strain in some countries, carries a reduced risk of being admitted to hospital, but the World Health Organization still urged caution.
"The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," the UN health agency said overnight.
"Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days."
More than 5.4 million people around the world have died from Covid-19, but the number of deaths declined to an average of 6,450 a day in the last week, the AFP tally said, the lowest since late October 2020.
Painful restrictions
The WHO warned further data was needed to understand Omicron's severity.
Its 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 Incident Manager Catherine Smallwood.
More than 3.5 million cases have been recorded in Europe in the last seven days, with Britain, France, Greece and Portugal all reporting record daily case numbers.
France on Wednesday extended by another three weeks the closure of nightclubs -- with financial aid to help mitigate the loss of business over the Christmas and New Year period.
"I can imagine the distress for these employees and entrepreneurs," Tourism Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told France Inter radio.
French lawmakers were on Wednesday to start debating a new law that will only allow those vaccinated -- and no longer accept proof of a negative Covid test -- to enter restaurants, cinemas, museums and other public venues.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has forced sports competitions behind closed doors and also shut nightclubs, limiting private gatherings to 10 vaccinated people -- or two households where any unvaccinated people are present.
New Year's Eve cancelled
On Wednesday, Vietnam, an export-reliant economy long seen as a success story in Asia, reported economic growth for 2021 at a 30-year low of just 2.58 percent, as the pandemic continues to take a toll.
