Omicron now dominant in EU

Omicron is now the dominant Covid-19 variant circulating in the European Union and European Economic Area (EAA), the bloc's health agency has said.  

"The transmission category for Omicron in the EU and the EEA changed from community to dominant," the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its weekly update on communicable disease threats.

The EEA includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

The ECDC said Omicron, which was first discovered in South Africa, was now "dominant in the majority of EU/EEA countries", with a "78 percent pooled prevalence".

Covid is currently soaring across Europe, with cases increasing by nine percent in the region in the past week, according to an AFP database.

The World Health Organization said last week that the Omicron variant could infect half of all people in the region by March this year.

According to an AFP tally, the number of average daily cases globally leapt to a record 3.1 million last week till Thursday, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous seven days.

At a global level the number of Covid-related deaths took a rise again, up nine percent compared to the previous week to 7,526 per day.

The US mourned the most daily deaths with 1,969 per day, followed by Russia with 698 and India with 380.

However the upsurge was less marked than in previous weeks, when the highly contagious Omicron variant began its rampage.

The week's main upsurge took place in Asia -- particularly in India -- where the number of daily cases increased by 57 percent. There was also an increase of 36 percent in the Latin America-Caribbean zone and the Middle East, which was up 32 percent.

Nepal saw the biggest increase in new infections, with cases rocketing by 330 percent.

Meanwhile, a large real-world study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed Friday that Covid-19 vaccines and boosters continued to have very high efficacy against severe outcomes during the Omicron wave of the virus.

The paper evaluated data from more than 300,000 visits to emergency departments, urgent care clinics, and hospitalizations across 10 states from August 26, 2021 to January 5, 2022.

During the period when the Delta variant was dominant, vaccine efficacy against Covid-19 hospitalization was 90 percent between 14-179 days after dose two of a vaccine, fell to 81 percent more than 180 days after the second dose, and rose to 94 percent 14 days or more after dose three.

After Omicron became dominant, the vaccine efficacy estimate against hospitalization between 14-179 days after dose two was 81 percent, 57 percent after more than 180 days from dose two, and 90 percent 14 or more days after dose three.