Category: World News

Following initial studies, surveys by the British health authority UKHSA have now also shown that Omicron apparently causes significantly milder courses of disease than previous variants of the coronavirus. The risk of having to be hospitalized after an infection is 50 to 70 percent lower with Omicron than with the Delta variant, which previously dominated in the UK, the authority explained yesterday. At the same time, it warned against jumping to conclusions because only a few data are available so far. The data are “preliminary” and scientifically “very uncertain,” the…

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Spain yesterday recorded a new daily high in coronavirus infections. According to the Ministry of Health, 49,823 new cases were reported within 24 hours. The much more contagious Omicron variant already accounted for almost half of all new cases. It accounted for 47.2 percent of cases detected between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12, according to the ministry. The previous daily record was 39,000 cases within 24 hours in January. Spain is among the countries with the highest vaccination rate, with 89.7 percent of those over 12 fully vaccinated. In light…

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The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is now the predominant variant in the United States, according to government data. Seventy-three percent of new infections in the United States are due to Omicron, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced Monday (local time). That’s a jump from just 12.6 percent of cases attributed to Omicron the previous week. Omicron has pushed Delta, the previously predominant variant, into second place. According to CDC data, on the Pacific Coast in the northwestern United States, more than 90 percent of new cases of…

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The Omikron variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant variant in Denmark, according to Health Minister Magnus Heunickec. The government health institute SSI has come to the conclusion that Omicron is already the dominant viral variant in the country and continues to spread, Heunicke wrote on Twitter today. He added that an epidemic was seen to be growing, with a record 13,558 confirmed CoV cases added today. To date, the SSI had recorded more than 26,000 omicron cases, including 1,367 confirmed by whole genome sequencing and nearly 25,000 detected…

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According to the WHO, the coronavirus variant Omicron is spreading much faster than Delta. Many countries are taking precautions, the Netherlands even with a hard lockdown. The infections with Omicron doubled every 1.5 to three days, communicated the World Health Organization WHO in Geneva. So far, the variant has been detected in 89 countries, it said. WHO warned that hospitals may be overwhelmed in some places given the rapid increase in cases. “The number of hospitalizations in the United Kingdom and South Africa continues to rise, and given the rapidly…

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The British capital London has declared a state of emergency today due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. “The increase in Omicron cases in our capital is very worrying,” Mayor Sadiq Khan announced. “That is why we are again declaring a disaster emergency.” Khan pointed out that the number of patients in London’s hospitals is again rising sharply. The city had already declared a disaster emergency at the beginning of January. At that time, the health system was on the verge of collapse. In concrete terms, this means…

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About 273 million people have tested positive for the virus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 5.3 million infected people have died. More than 8.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. Moderna wants to revise its vaccine because of the Omicron variant. However, it is far from certain when it will be launched on the market. The Japanese government will extend entry restrictions for foreigners beyond the end of the year in light of the spread of the Omicron variant. The daily Yomiuri reported Saturday (Dec. 18)…

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The new Omicron variant of the Cornavirus is also spreading rapidly in Spain. In the capital region of Madrid, it already accounts for more than 30 percent of all new infections, the newspaper El Pais reported today, citing doctors. In the tourist metropolis of Barcelona, the figure is 25 percent, regional Health Minister Josep Maria Argimon told the newspaper La Vanguardia. Omicron is expected to be dominant there by Christmas. A similar development was also reported from other areas of Spain. In Navarra in the north of the country, the…

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Almost 10,000 new CoV cases were registered in Denmark yesterday – more than ever before in a single day. About 3,000 of the cases are omicron variants of the virus, according to the National Serum Institute. In total, about 9,000 Omicron infections have been detected in the country of nearly six million people since the end of November. Superspreader events in nightlife in particular have led to the virus spreading rapidly, the institute said. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced via Facebook new measures to slow the spread of the virus.…

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