The world hit a record number of COVID infections in a seven-day period, with more than 935,000 cases detected on average each day between December 22 to 28 with the World Health Organization warning that Omicron still poses “very high” risk and could overwhelm healthcare systems as the highly transmissible coronavirus variant fueled outbreaks in many countries.
The figures, the highest since the virus first emerged at the end of 2019, are based on tolls given daily by health authorities in each country.
A large share of the less serious or asymptomatic cases remain undetected despite ramped up testing in many countries since the pandemic began.
With 6,550,000 cases recorded between December 22 and 28 – or an average of 935,863 a day – the virus is spreading at unprecedented speed.
The figures are sharply higher than the previous record between April 23 to 29 when 817,000 cases were recorded on average each day.
The detected infections, which have been rising globally since mid-October, increased by 37 percent over the preceding seven days.
“The rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant,” the WHO said.
“The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high,” the UN health agency added.
For now, the explosion in detected case numbers has not led to a worldwide increase in deaths, which have been on the decline for the last three weeks.
Around 6,450 new deaths a day have been recorded on average in the last seven days, the lowest since the end of October 2020.
At the height of the pandemic, 14,800 daily deaths were recorded between January 20 to 26, 2021.
Most of the new infections are currently occurring in Europe, where more than 3.5 million cases have been recorded in the last seven days, or more than 510,000 on average each day.
The level is also unprecedented, as the continent never recorded more than 300,000 cases per day in previous waves.
The Netherlands and Switzerland said Omicron had become the dominant strain in their countries, and while some studies suggested it causes milder COVID-19, the WHO urged caution.
“Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days.”
The US Centers for Disease Control has halved the isolation period for asymptomatic cases to try and limit disruptions and mass labor shortages.
President Joe Biden said the United States was generally well prepared, though some hospitals could be “overrun.”
