Covid-19 cases are rampant again in Denmark. The cause is the Omicron variant which has a high transmission rate.
"The Institute of Public Health now considers Omicron to be the dominant variant and continues to climb," said Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke.
In the past 24 hours, new cases in the country of 5.8 million people hit a record 13,558. At least 500 of these cases are people who have already contracted COVID-19. To deal with this, the Danish government has implemented a number of restrictions. On Sunday, the Danish government closed cinemas, theaters and concert halls and limited restaurant opening hours. These measures will last at least four weeks. In fact, the Nordic country has lifted all restrictions since last September 10, before re-implementing the coronapass in early November. Dealing with new record numbers every day, the government has accelerated the rollout of booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. . The government also authorized anti-Covid pill treatment by US drugmaker Merck for serious cases and started vaccinating children aged five to 11.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the omicron variant of Covid is more contagious than the delta variant. The variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, can also infect people who have received the coronavirus vaccine or patients who have recovered from the disease.
"There is consistent evidence that omicron spreads significantly more rapidly than the delta variant," said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Geneva, Switzerland.
"It is possible that people who have been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 can be infected or re-infected," he said.
WHO lead scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the omicron variant was able to escape several immune responses. In other words, booster vaccination programs currently underway in many countries, should target people with weakened immune systems.
You must be logged in to post a comment.