The cases registered worldwide passed 300 million on Friday as the Omicron variant’s rapid spread set new infection records in dozens of countries over the last week.
As many as 34 countries have recorded their highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic, including 18 nations in Europe and seven in Africa.
RELATED STORY: WHO: Omicron variant may be less severe but not mild
Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than its predecessors and spurred the world to record 13.5 million cases in the last week alone which was 64 percent higher than the previous seven days.
The global average of deaths however dropped three percent. A global average of two million new cases is being detected daily.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Omicron “is hospitalizing people and it is killing people”.
