European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that the Omicron variant will likely become the dominant coronavirus strain by mid-January.
Across most of Britain, the variant’s doubling time is “now under two days,” Dr. Jenny Harries, head of the U.K. Health Security Agency told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, adding that Omicron is “probably the most significant threat we’ve had since the start of the pandemic.” She expects to see numbers of new cases rise to levels that are “quite staggering.
In Denmark, which has reported 4,700 Omicron cases, the government requires a COVID pass to enter restaurants and cultural venues is ordering early holiday closings of schools and encouraging working at home. The same is true in Belgium, where gyms have been closed and nightclubs shuttered. Spain, which boasts one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates at 83 percent, has begun vaccinating children 5 years and older, and booster campaigns are speeding up. Despite having an indoor mask mandate that has not lifted for the past 18 months, the country is showing that it too is not immune from the threat posed by Omicron. With numbers of new cases shooting up, the government health agency said Thursday that the country was experiencing “high risk” of transmission.
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