This archive report was first published on 15 December 2021.
As the Omicron variant continues to spread globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has sounded the alarm, warning of an unprecedented rate of transmission.
According to the WHO, Omicron has been reported in 77 countries and has probably spread to most nations undetected, at a rate not seen with any previous variant.
The WHO has urged countries to act swiftly to rein in transmission, protect their health systems, and guard against complacency.
Despite the warning, there is no proof yet that the Omicron variant causes more severe illness, although Africa has recorded a massive rise in cases over the past week with a lower number of deaths compared to previous waves.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has announced that its Covid-19 pill, Paxlovid, has been shown to be effective against the Omicron variant in lab testing, reducing hospital admissions and deaths among at-risk people by almost 90 percent.
The WHO has also highlighted the importance of vaccination, with a real-world study from South Africa showing that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 70 percent effective in stopping severe illness from Omicron.
However, the study also underlined the threat of the coronavirus, with low vaccination rates in regions including Africa providing breeding grounds for new variants of the virus.
As the global coronavirus hotspot, Europe has recorded 62 percent of the world's total cases in the past seven days, with the five countries with the world's highest infection rates all being European.
The Netherlands has followed other European nations in reintroducing restrictions, with primary schools set to close from December 20 and a night-time lockdown extended over Omicron fears.
