Sunday

1st Oct 2023

Record-breaking Omicron wave sweeps across Europe

  • The EU's medicine agency raised concerns over the strategy of giving boosters every four months (Photo: The Focal Project)
Listen to article

Record number of new coronavirus infections were reported across Europe on Wednesday (12 January) as the milder but highly-contagious Omicron Covid-19 variant sweeps through the continent.

Germany reported 80,430 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the highest recorded in a single day since the pandemic began. The previous daily record, on 26 November last year, was more than 76,000.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The German death toll also rose by 384 on Wednesday, to reach 114,735, while around 75 percent of the population has had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, figures from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious disease showed.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers again on Wednesday he was in favour of mandatory vaccination.

The choice to be vaccinated was "not a decision you make just for yourself, and that's why mandatory vaccination is the right thing to do," Scholz said.

Almost two-thirds of Germans support mandatory vaccination, polls show.

After a parliamentary debate on the issue at the end of the month, a bill on making vaccination mandatory is expected to come to a vote in March.

Austria's daily coronavirus infections have also hit a new record, with the number of infections rising above 17,000 for the first time on Wednesday, to 17,006. The previous peak was last November.

Austria currently has in place a lockdown for the unvaccinated, and a 10PM closing time for bars and restaurants.

In Bulgaria, daily infections also reached a record high, at 7,062 on Wednesday - in the EU's least-vaccinated country.

More than 5,200 people were in hospital, including 580 in intensive care. In Sofia, planned operations have been suspended as hospitals prepared for Covid-19 patients.

Bulgarians have to wear masks indoors and have to show a health pass - vaccination or negative test - to go to restaurants and shopping malls.

The new government has offered a one-time cash reward for pensioners who get vaccinated or take a booster.

Around a thousand anti-vaccine protesters, organised by the ultra-nationalist Revival party, rallied against the health pass, and tried to storm the parliament in the capital on Wednesday.

Heavy police presence prevented the from entering the building while several people, including police officers, were injured during the clashes, AP reported.

The country's prime minister, Kiril Petkov, plus president Rumen Radev and senior ministers have gone into precautionary self-isolation on Tuesday after a participant at a meeting they all attended tested positive for the virus.

Belgium, France, and Italy too

Belgium, France, and Italy, meanwhile, also reported record number of new cases on Tuesday.

France reported 368,149 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day record of the pandemic.

"We have never before seen such numbers since the start of the health crisis," health minister Oliver Veran said.

The numbers reflect those registered by health authorities, and does not include self-tests or infected people who develop no symptoms, and are not aware of their contagiousness.

Nevertheless, the spread of Omicron variant is pushing the virus towards an endemic phase, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday.

"With the increase of immunity in population, and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination, we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity," Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy told reporters.

The EMA also expressed doubts about giving a fourth vaccine shot to people, saying repeated boosters were not a "sustainable" strategy in terms of immune response and the population's tiredness of repeated vaccination.

WHO: Omicron to infect over half of Europeans in two months

The World Health Organization said Omicron is likely to infect more than half of the population in Europe within the next two months, threatening healthcare systems. It warned that it is too early to consider Covid as an endemic virus.

Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'

Poland in 2020 imposed a near-total ban on abortion, triggering mass protests — and today the demands for access to safe abortion continue. On International Safe Abortion Day, dozens gathered in Brussels calling for solidarity among member states.

EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making

Emily O'Reilly cited the post-pandemic recovery funds, the windfall taxes on energy companies, and the joint purchase of vaccines, as procedures which received limited scrutiny from the national parliaments — as a result of emergency decision-making powers that bypassed parliament.

Opinion

Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling

Vasco Alves Cordeiro, president of the European Committee of the Regions, is advocating a revamp of the EU's regional policy so that it better supports all regions in addressing major challenges such as the green and digital transitions.

Opinion

How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?

The EU Commission's new magic formula for avoiding scrutiny is simple. You declare the documents in question to be "short-lived correspondence for a preliminary exchange of views" and thus exempt them from being logged in the official inventory.

Latest News

  1. EU women promised new dawn under anti-violence pact
  2. Three steps EU can take to halt Azerbaijan's mafia-style bullying
  3. Punish Belarus too for aiding Putin's Ukraine war
  4. Added-value for Russia diamond ban, as G7 and EU prepare sanctions
  5. EU states to agree on asylum crisis bill, say EU officials
  6. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  7. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  8. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  2. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
  2. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  3. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  4. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us