Alwaght- Several European countries have reported record high COVID-19 cases, as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to surge across the continent.
France reported a record high of 179,807 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period on Tuesday, by far the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. The previous record of 104,611 was set on Saturday.
Britain reported a record 129,471 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours on Tuesday, excluding Northern Ireland and Scotland. The previous record high of daily infections was 122,186 on December 24.
Portugal also reported record-high daily coronavirus cases on Tuesday, despite having one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, as did Cyprus, Italy, and Greece.
In the US, too, things are never better. California became the first US state to record more than 5 million known coronavirus infections, according to the state’s data on Tuesday, which was delayed by the holiday weekend.
The US President Joe Biden has promised to boost testing capacity to combat the Omicron-driven wave of infections, including by distributing 500 million at-home tests starting next month.
The Omicron variant is thought by scientists to be milder than previous incarnations of the virus, but it is not clear exactly to what extent – or how many of the record number of people being infected will end up in hospital or dying.
