Last week, Europe and central Asia saw 27 000 additional COVID-19 deaths and 2.6 million new cases. Infections, still predominantly from the Delta variant, are 40% higher now than during the same period last year.

Since its identification, 27 days ago, the Omicron variant of concern has been detected in at least 38 of the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region.

There are still numerous unanswered questions around Omicron, but here is what we know today:

We can see another storm coming – Omicron is becoming, or already has become, dominant in several countries, including in Denmark, Portugal and the United Kingdom, where its numbers are doubling every one and a half to 3 days, generating previously unseen transmission rates.

Within weeks, Omicron will dominate in more countries of the Region, pushing already stretched health systems further to the brink. Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant circulating in our Region.

The sheer volume of new COVID-19 infections could lead to more hospitalizations and widespread disruption to health systems and other critical services. It has unfortunately already resulted in hospitalizations and deaths.

This variant can evade previous immunity in people – so it can still infect those who have had COVID-19 in the past, those who are unvaccinated, and those who were vaccinated many months ago. Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are 3 to 5 times more likely to be reinfected with Omicron compared to Delta.

We don’t yet know whether Omicron causes more severe disease than the Delta variant.

On a positive note, early evidence supports the assumption that COVID-19 vaccines continue to do their job and save lives.

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