(Copenhagen) Denmark, one of the most advanced countries in Europe for detecting variants, on Sunday announced a “worrying” jump to 183 confirmed cases of the new Omicron variant, suggesting that cases elsewhere in Europe could be greatly underestimated .
As of the last tally on Friday, Denmark had just 18 confirmed cases and 42 suspected cases of the new variant of the virus responsible for COVID-19, according to data from the public institute SSI, which means the number of cases has at less tripled in 48 hours.
Prior to this announcement, the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) had a total of 182 cases across the European Union, plus Norway and Iceland.
“We are seeing a worrying increase in the number of cases of Omicron infections in Denmark,” SSI director Henrik Ullum said in a statement.
“There are now chains of contagion where the variant is detected in people who have not gone on a trip or been in contact with travelers,” he underlines.
The Nordic country of 5.8 million inhabitants is one of the most equipped in Europe in terms of sequencing, allowing it to detect more cases and more quickly, without this means that the contagion is stronger there than elsewhere.
Even if at least two significant outbreaks have been identified in Denmark, it is indeed highly unlikely that the small kingdom alone concentrates as many cases as the rest of Europe, only a week after the detection of a first case.
The ISS is working “intensively” to further accelerate the rapid results of laboratory tests, so that health institutions can trace the chains of contamination “as quickly as possible,” said Ullum.
Vaccinate with the time saved
“The time we save, we have to use it to vaccinate as many people as possible. Significant immunity gives more solidity to our society, if the Omicron contamination continues, ”he argues.
Of the 183 confirmed cases, 32 were by the most sophisticated method known as “WGS”, while 151 were by PCR identifying the variants. According to SSI, the latter method “is so safe in its detection that a case using this method is now considered confirmed”.
An ever-growing number of countries are reporting cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in recent days. This is causing concern because of its many problematic mutations, even if the WHO says it has no knowledge of fatal cases at this time.
“It is only about a week since a case was detected for the first time in Denmark, since it has been quickly,” said Birgitte Drewes, another Danish health official, quoted by the Ritzau agency.
According to her, 38 confirmed cases come from a company meal organized for Christmas in the west of the country, which brought together 150 people. Another outbreak had already been reported for a similar event in Viborg, also in Jutland (west).
According to ECDC, 17 EU countries (plus Norway and Iceland) have detected at least one case of Omicron on their soil. Portugal (34), Norway (19), the Netherlands (18) and Germany (15) are the countries having detected the most.