Omicron rising: The United Kingdom reported more than one lakh new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the first time it has crossed this level since the beginning of the pandemic. Over 1.06 lakh cases were detected in a 24-hour period, which is over 13,000 more than the previous highest of 93,000 recorded a few days ago, Sky News reported.
The UK has been witnessing the fastest spread of the newly-discovered Omicron variant, with more than 50,000 cases confirmed so far.
Most cases in Europe
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that seven of the ten countries with the highest number of cases in the last seven days are in Europe, the other three being the United States, South Africa, and Vietnam.
Omicron has now spread to 106 countries, the WHO has reported. In the week between December 13 and 19, more than 41.77 lakh new cases were detected across the world, of which over 26.11 lakh (63%) came from Europe, the WHO said in its weekly report.
Besides the UK, Spain too recorded its highest-ever single day case count of nearly 50,000 on Tuesday, while France said it expected the daily count of cases to exceed one lakh very soon due to the spread of the Omicron variant. The country is currently averaging over 50,000 cases a day.
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