Covid: Half of Europe to be infected with Omicron within weeks - WHO - BBC News

The World Health Organization has warned that half of Europe will have been infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 within six to eight weeks.

Dr Hans Kluge said a "west-to-east tidal wave" of Omicron was sweeping across the region, on top of the surge of the Delta variant already present.

The projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022.

"Today the Omicron variant represents a new west-to-east tidal wave, sweeping across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021," Dr Kluge told a news conference.

He quoted the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as forecasting that "more than 50 percent of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks".

The record number of people catching it has left health systems under severe strain.

On Monday, the UK reported a further 142,224 confirmed cases of the virus and 77 deaths.

In Russia, top consumer health official Anna Popova told a meeting of the government's coronavirus task force that without action to control the spread of the virus, the daily number of new Covid cases there could reach 100,000.

Ms Popova said 305 known cases of the Omicron variant had been detected so far, in 13 of the country's regions.