Thursday 15 / May / 2025
Many countries have registered record rates of coronavirus infections as the omicron variant takes hold across the world.
France, Britain, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, the United States, Bolivia, Australia and other nations all recorded a record surge in cases on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
The dramatic rise prompted a warning from World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"Delta and omicron are now twin threats driving up cases to record numbers, leading to spikes in hospitalization and deaths," Tedros told a press briefing.
"I am highly concerned that omicron, being highly transmissible and spreading at the same time as Delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases."
"This means that 24 hours a day, day and night, every second in our country, two French people are diagnosed positive," Health Minister Olivier Veran told lawmakers on Wednesday. "We have never experienced such a situation," he said, describing the increase in cases as "dizzying."
Germany is expected to see similar rises in omicron cases, although numbers are slightly delayed.
Uwe Janssens, who heads the German Society of Internal Medicine and Intensive Care , told DW in an interview that reliable data on the proportion of the omicron variant in Germany is currently unavailable as COVID reports have been delayed and testing volumes have dipped during the Christmas holidays.
However, he said "it can be assumed that the omicron variant will certainly dominate in January, like in the other countries such as Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, and Portugal."
"This means... we can expect significant number of infections... we are recording daily growth rates of almost 50%."
