At the current rate of contamination, the variant, more contagious but less dangerous than Delta, could quickly affect half of the population of the Old Continent.
More than half of Europeans could be affected by the Omicron variant within two months given the “tsunami“Current, estimated Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO), two years exactly after the announcement of the first death officially linked to the coronavirus in China.
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“At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicts that over 50% of the region’s population will be infected with Omicron within the next six to eight weeks.“, said the director of WHO Europe, Hans Kluge, during a press conference. According to him, this variant of the highly contagious Covid-19 has mutations “allowing it to adhere more easily to human cells, and being able to infect even people who have been previously infected or vaccinated“. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said on Monday that its anti-Omicron vaccine should be ready in March.
The pandemic has killed nearly 5.5 million people, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources, which could actually be two to three times higher, according to the WHO. The first cases were detected at the end of 2019 in China, and on January 11, 2020, Beijing announced the first officially recorded death from atypical pneumonia, later baptized Covid-19, in the city of Wuhan (center). Faced with a multiplication of sources of contamination, China has confined several of its mega-cities.
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Monday evening, Anyang, in the province of Henan (center), ordered its five million inhabitants to stay at home, banned the circulation of private vehicles, closed non-essential businesses and launched a general screening campaign because of ‘Omicron, according to the official China news agency. The city has recorded 84 contaminations since Saturday, including at least two cases of the variant, linked to contaminations in the port metropolis of Tianjin (north). This city bordering Beijing banned its 14 million inhabitants on Sunday from leaving municipal limits. Anyang is the third city to confine its population.
China, which largely contained the epidemic at the beginning of 2020 (barely 100,000 officially recorded cases, including 4,636 fatalities), follows a policy “zero covid» relying on radical measures as soon as a few cases are detected. This strategy is threatened by an outbreak in Xi’an (center, 12 million inhabitants), the most serious since spring 2020, and the appearance of Omicron. The authorities are on the alert as the Beijing Winter Olympics (February 4 to 20) approach. Henan borders Hebei Province, which will host part of the events.
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Several cities face drastic health restrictions, but apart from Anyang and Xi’an, only another city in Henan, Yuzhou (1 million inhabitants), imposes confinement. In Zhengzhou (13 million inhabitants), capital of Henan, a hundred cases have been detected. Schools, non-essential businesses and public transport have been closed. In Shenzhen (south, 12.6 million inhabitants), at the gates of Hong Kong, a general screening campaign was launched after a handful of cases. Residential complexes have been confined. Hong Kong has also tightened its restrictions: nurseries and primary schools are closed until the beginning of February. Neighboring Japan extended restrictions on Tuesday, until the end of February, prohibiting the entry of most foreign nationals on its soil, and will reopen mass vaccination centers.
“Rather angry”
Deep skepticism and opposition – sometimes violent – to vaccines, the most effective tools against the pandemic according to experts, reign in many countries. This was illustrated last week when Australia canceled the visa of unvaccinated Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic. He won a legal challenge on Monday against the Australian government, but resentment against him is mounting in the country. “I imagine some people must be pretty angryadmitted a 22-year-old fan, Harrison Denicolo, who believes that Novak Djokovic should be allowed to participate in the Australian Open – the decision remains pending.
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In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Draghi urged his citizens to get vaccinated. New restrictions were introduced on Monday: the unvaccinated will no longer be able to access public transport, restaurants, sports halls, cinemas…Most of the problems facing us today come from the fact that people are not vaccinated“, according to Mario Draghi. Poland, one of the least vaccinated countries in Europe, exceeded 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, according to authorities. As for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he risks being targeted by a police investigation into a garden party in Downing Street in May 2020, in full confinement.
In this context of global epidemic resurgence, governments are once again faced with the delicate choice between health restrictions and preservation of the economy and the functioning of society in general. France said on Monday that anti-Covid rules would be relaxed at school. The current outbreak (nearly 270,000 daily cases over the past seven days, 281 deaths on Monday), attributed to Omicron, has led to the closure of thousands of classes, worrying parents and teachers. From Tuesday, parents will no longer be obliged to pick up their child immediately to take an anti-Covid test if there is a contact case.
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