Western Europe coronavirus surge raises concerns that the U.S. could be next

COVID tests in Germany
(Image credit: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)

Western Europe has been hit with a surge in coronavirus infections that is raising concerns that the United States could face another wave of COVID-19 cases, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Germany, for example, recorded more than 250,000 new cases and 249 deaths on Friday as an Omicron subvariant spread rapidly through the nation of 83 million people. The subvariant, known as BA.2, appears more transmissible than the highly infectious original Omicron variant, BA.1, that fueled the last U.S. wave. China and other Asian countries are also experiencing their worst outbreaks yet, but since the pandemic started, large outbreaks in Europe have been followed by surges in the U.S., and some public health experts are predicting that will happen this time, too.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.