Omicron now dominant strain in Denmark: minister

The highly transmissible Omicron variant is now dominant in Denmark, which on Tuesday set a new record for daily COVID-19 infections, the health minister said.

"The Institute of Public Health now considers Omicron to be the dominant variant and climbing" a month after first being detected in the Nordic country, Magnus Heunicke tweeted.

A record 13,558 new cases in 24 hours were registered in the nation of 5.8 million people. At least 500 of the cases were people who had already had COVID-19.

Faced with surging cases, Denmark—which sequences more samples than many other countries—on Sunday shut cinemas, theatres and concert halls and has restricted restaurant opening hours. The measures are due to last at least four weeks.

It marked a sharp turnaround for a country that had lifted all restrictions on September 10, before reintroducing a coronapass at the beginning of November then announcing a first round of restrictions last week.

Dealing with new record numbers on a daily basis, the government has accelerated the rollout of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines, authorised an anti-COVID pill treatment by US drugmaker Merck for serious cases and started vaccinations of children aged five to 11.

© 2021 AFP