Health

Germany confirms first Omicron death, UK reports nearly 120,000 cases

(Update 1: adds France daily infections)

Madrid Desk, Dec 23 (EFE).- Germany on Thursday confirmed its first death due to the Omicron variant, which has been detected in 25% more cases than 24 hours earlier, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

According to the national disease control center, the patient that died was in the 60 to 70 age range while the most affected age group is between 15 to 34 years old, which accounts for around half the 3,198 total Omicron coronavirus infections in the country.

Health authorities reported 44,927 new infections on Thursday and 425 deaths due to Covid-19, the RKI reported.

German authorities have announced new restrictions from December 28 to reduce social gatherings to avoid a skyrocketing of cases over Christmas and New Year.

Meanwhile, Italy is set to tighten measures and reintroduce mandatory face masks outdoors as well as banning outdoor parties until the end of January to avoid large gatherings. Italy reported 44,595 new infections in the last 24 hours, the highest since February 2020 during the first wave.

Greece also announced Thursday that Christmas celebrations will be cancelled from Friday and face masks will be mandatory outdoors again, a day after Spain also reintroduced mandatory face masks outdoors.

The United Kingdom on Thursday broke its record for new daily infections for the second consecutive day, after health authorities registered nearly 120,000 cases, up 14,000 from a day earlier.

Despite the spike in cases, the British government announced it would not impose new restrictions before Christmas although warned of the possibility of toughening measures later on.

France also reported its highest daily cases since the start of the pandemic, with 91,068 new infections in the last 24 hours.

Studies published in South Africa and the UK have shown that Omicron has less hospitalization risks than earlier variants although its high transmissibility could lead to a saturation of health systems. EFE

mp/ks

Related Articles

Back to top button