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Date Published: 21/01/2022

ARCHIVED - Omicron accounts for 70 per cent of EU Covid cases

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The Omicron variant is now the dominant coronavirus strain in Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Omicron accounts for 70 per cent of EU Covid cases

The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) has confirmed that the Omicron variant has by now been identified in every country of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). Moreover, between December 20 and January 9, this strain represented 69.4% of all Covid infections, an increase of 20% compared to the previous week.

A variant is considered dominant once it accounts for more than 50% of viruses sequenced, and this is now the case for Austria (95.4%), Belgium (99.7%) and Cyprus (93.9%) among 20 others. In Spain, 87.4% of all infections diagnosed are Omicron.

During the first week of 2022, increases of 20% or more were registered in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain and Sweden. Despite the rise in Omicron cases, Spain’s cumulative incidence rate has in fact decreased for three days running and hospital and ICU pressure has been alleviated slightly, owing in large part to the fact that the vast majority of vulnerable age groups have been double, and in most cases, triple jabbed.

Omicron or flu? How to tell the difference between symptoms

Across Europe, the average age of those infected with the variant in the first week of 2022 is 30 years and infections are spread evenly between men and women. In contrast, only 7% of people over the age of 60 have tested positive for Omicron.

In total, from the available data, 111,949 cases of Omicron have been diagnosed in the EU/EEA, 76% reported having symptoms while the remaining 24% were asymptomatic.

Of these, 1.14% of people had to be hospitalised, 0.16% of patients ended up in the ICU and 0.06% have died.

Image: Archive

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