What Europe is doing to contain the spread of Omicron

Omicron will be the most dominant Covid-19 strain in Europe by mid-January, the European Commission president has predicted after Denmark and Norway reported infection surges driven by the new variant.

Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that the arrival of the new strain means Christmas will “once again” be “overshadowed by the pandemic”. Spiralling cases in the Scandinavian countries and in the UK are “offering a warning to the rest of Europe”, said the Financial Times (FT).

Experts have said the nationwide outbreaks provide insights into “how infections and hospital admission rates could spike across Europe this winter”, the newspaper added, as well as showing “the need for effective booster programmes to be in place”.

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Christmas surge

Since the Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa in November, cases have been reported in more than 25 countries in Europe. More than 10,000 Omicron cases have been recorded in the UK, according to latest government figures.

Amid pessimistic predictions about the UK outbreak, the strain is also spreading rapidly in Denmark and Norway, where health authorities have also “​​released grim projections for the coming wave”, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

While scientists “don’t yet know how often the variant causes severe disease”, the paper continued, they have warned that “its rapid rate of spread will lead to an explosion of cases and could potentially increase pressure on hospitals, even if it proves to be mild”.

Preliminary data indicates that “vaccines are providing little protection from infection”, although “scientists believe that the shots will still fend off severe disease and death”.

“European countries were among the first to report cases,” said euronews, “but the variant has yet to be detected everywhere on the continent.”

However, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said yesterday that “two new countries (Lithuania and Slovenia) have reported cases” and that “several countries have reported a number of probable cases”.

According to the EU agency, the total number of confirmed Omicron cases in Denmark had reached 310, while the tally is Norway had surged to almost 1,500.

Norway last week reported an outbreak linked to a Christmas party in Oslo that was believed to be Europe’s largest to date.

Authorities in the Norwegian capital said that without countermeasures, “Omicron could infect up to 300,000 people a day compared with the previous peak of about 1,000 cases”, the FT said. In neighbouring Denmark, health officials warned that “daily cases could soon exceed 10,000”.

“Denmark is a front runner here,” Soren Riis Paludan, professor of biomedicine at Aarhus University, told the paper. “We were one of the first countries to have initial spreading domestically, but other countries in Europe will see the same.”

Return to restrictions

On Monday, the Norwegian government announced what Reuters described as a “partial lockdown”. Frode Forland, Norway’s state epidemiologist, told the FT that “the strategy in Norway” was to try to prolong the time period until Omicron “takes over”. He added: The situation is very serious now so we have to take urgent measures.”

The introduction of those measures came days after Denmark “imposed new public health restrictions, including requiring restaurants and bars to close at midnight and switching some schools to virtual instruction before the winter holidays”, the NYT reported.

Like the UK, Denmark has also expanded its booster campaign. A statement from the Danish Health Authority on Monday said that any citizen aged 40 or older who was at least four-and-a-half months past their second shot was now eligible for a third dose.

Swathes of Europe that are yet to report major outbreaks are also introducing new restrictions.

Italy this week said that vaccinated visitors would have to show negative tests on arrival in the country, mirroring the approach introduced in Portugal on 1 December. And Dutch primary schools will “close early before the Christmas holiday”, France 24 said.

Greece, Italy, Spain and Hungary have “expanded their vaccination programmes to younger children”, with plans to give the jab to five- to 11-year-olds, the London Evening Standard reported.

Von der Leyen told the European Parliament earlier this week there are “enough vaccine doses for every European now”. And vaccination was more important than ever as Omicron spreads, the European Commission president said, because “if you look at the time it takes for new cases to double in number, it seems to be doubling every two or three days”.