Europe seems to be witnessing a surge in Covid cases after the highly infectious Omicron variant triggered worldwide restrictions late last year, reports suggest. In a tweet, a US expert warned last week, "The next wave in Europe has begun." Among the European countries, France has logged the highest number of overall cases (2,37,17,460) and over 1.4 lakh deaths. Germany has recorded over 1.73 crore cases in two years of pandemic and 1.25 lakh deaths.
France reported 18,853 new infections on Monday, a figure showing a week-on-week increase for the 10th consecutive time as most restrictions were lifted, news agency Reuters reported.
Eric Topol, founder of the US-based Scripps Research Translational Institute, sharing a graphic from a report, gave a dire warning in another tweet about the surge: "What happens in the UK and Europe doesn't stay there. 5 out of 5 warnings predicted what would happen in this US. Let's make believe the 6th won't. (sic)"
In the United Kingdom, most travel restrictions will go from this Friday, reports said. “The UK is leading the world in removing all remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions, and today’s announcement is a testament to the hard work everyone in this country has put in place to roll out the vaccine and protect each other,” UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was quoted as saying on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}In the United Kingdom, most travel restrictions will go from this Friday, reports said. “The UK is leading the world in removing all remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions, and today’s announcement is a testament to the hard work everyone in this country has put in place to roll out the vaccine and protect each other,” UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was quoted as saying on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}The Europe surge comes at a time when China is putting in force unprecedented measures after witnessing the highest surge in nearly two years. The spike is believed to be driven by 'stealth Omicron' variant, believed to be more infectious that Omicron.
According to the American Medical Association, "the subvariant BA.2 has been referred to as “stealth” Omicron because it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to distinguish from the Delta variant using PCR tests as compared to the original version of Omicron".
"The Omicron variant spreads more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, and previous variants, including Delta. According to Danish scientists, the Omicron subvariant BA.2, is 1.5 times more transmissible than the original Omicron strain," the AMA says.
Worldwide, more than 45 crore cases of Covid have been registered since the Chinese city of Wuhan reported the firsrt outbreak. The United States has the highest number of overall cases (7.95 crore), followed by India (4.29 crore).