Several countries in Asia and Europe — the two hardest-hit continents — are witnessing an increase in daily cases as Omicron and its stealh variant spread across large swathes of the population, particularly among the unvaccinated.
From South Korea to Germany, daily Covid numbers continue to soar above the six-figure mark even as a pandemic-weary world hopes for a long-awaited return to pre-Covid normal.
The surge in Asia and Europe has also prompted the Centre to sound caution, with Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya directing officials to maintain a high level of alertness and surveillance.
Asian explosion
According to the World Health Organization, the number of new coronavirus infections rose in the last one week, reversing a declining trend that first began in January.
In the UN health agency’s weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said there were more than 11 million new Covid-19 infections last week — about an 8% rise — and 43,000 new deaths.
The big Covid numbers are now coming from countries like South Korea, Vietnam, Germany and UK — which are all adding over one lakh cases to their daily tally.
The most worrying increase in cases was observed in South Korea, which reported a record 400,000 fresh infections on March 15.
The latest spike in cases is the “last biggest challenge” facing the country, Sohn Young-rae, a senior health official, told a press briefing.
According to WHO, South Korea leads the world in newly reported cases in the last seven days.
After South Korea, Vietnam is reporting the second highest number of new cases in the world.
The country has been reporting over 2 lakh cases for the last 4 days, with Tuesday’s numbers breaching the 2.50-lakh mark.
However, on the brighter side, authorities in both the countries report that new cases are mostly mild. In South Korea, where the vast majority of eligible population has been vaccinated and boosted, the death rates remain very low.
While the Asian surge is dominated by these two countries, it is the latest outbreak in China which is sparking global concern.
Just three weeks ago China was reporting under one hundred Covid cases daily, but that number has swelled past 1,000 per day for a week.
The fresh outbreak — the worst since the first wave of Covid emerged in Wuhan in 2019 — has prompted authorities to enforce strict restrictions, including “stay-at-home” orders in multiple cities.
As many as 30 million Chinese residents are under lockdown as the Omicron-fueled surge breaks through the nation’s strict zero-Covid defences.
The surge in China follows a major outbreak in neighbouring Hong Kong. The financial hub saw daily cases soar past the 50,000-mark earlier this month.
Hong Kong also reported a concerning rise in Covid deaths since a large chunk of its elderly population remains unvaccinated.
After keeping the virus mostly at bay for nearly two years, Hong Kong authorities have been unable to bring under control an outbreak driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
In fact, so many people have been infected that there aren’t enough drivers for the city buses and subways or clerks to keep some stores open.
‘Stealth’ Omicron drives European surge
Source: ourworldindata.org
In Europe, Germany is adding the highest number of cases to the daily tally. On March 15, it reported over 2.6 lakh new cases of Covid.
According to WHO, weekly cases inched up by about 2% across Europe as countries like UK, Netherlands, Italy and France also reported a marginal uptick in cases.
The rising cases in Europe can be attributed to the prevalence of the “stealth” subvariant of the Omicron strain, the CNBC reported.
Source: ourworldindata.org
The report said that stealth Omicron, also known as BA.2 variant, is now responsible for over half of the new cases in Germany and makes up around 11% of cases in US.
Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology at Warwick University, told CNBC that BA.2 is already out-competing and replacing BA.1 (original Omicron strain), adding there are likely to be similar waves of infection as other variants enter the population.
India on alert
Amid a persistent Covid surge in some countries, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday directed officials to maintain a high level of alertness and surveillance, and carry out genomic sequencing aggressively.
“Given the rising cases in China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and some European countries, a high-level meeting was held by the Union health minister with senior government officials and experts. The minister has directed aggressive genomic sequencing, heightened surveillance and a high level of alertness,” an official source said.
(With inputs from agencies)