Omicron to become dominant strain in EU by mid-Jan-Bloc president

The United Kingdom recorded its most daily coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic on Wednesday as a senior British health chief said there could be a "staggering" rise over the next few days. More than 11 million people have now tested positive for the disease in the United Kingdom, which has a total population of around 67 million.With a new highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus surging across Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned of a "tidal wave" of infections but he suffered a blow to his authority when more than 100 lawmakers voted against measures to curb the increasing spread of the disease.

Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, called the Omicron variant "probably the most significant threat" since the start of the pandemic.Harries said that Omicron had the potential to put the national health service "in serious peril" because of the speed at which infections were increasing. More than 10,000 cases of Omicron have been recorded, with at least 10 people hospitalised. One person has died after contracting the variant, which is set to become the dominant strain in London. More than 146,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the Coronavirus's Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa, will become the dominant strain in the 27-nation bloc by mid-January. She, however,exuded confidence that the bloc is well prepared to fight the highly contagious strain. Given the high rate of vaccination in the bloc and the availability of vaccine doses, von der Leyen said Europe is now in a better position to fight the virus. She said more than 300 million people in the EU have been fully vaccinated and that 62 million people have gotten a booster jab.The commission chief further said the EU is facing a "double challenge" of increasing cases in recent weeks due to the Delta variant and rising threat from Omicron.

The alarming rise of new infections has prompted the implementations of further restrictions across Europe. Italy has made negative tests mandatory from vaccinated visitors even as the move has raised concerns that it will limit free movement at a time when many EU citizens travel to see their relatives and loved ones. Portugal adopted a similar measure on December 1, requiring a mandatory negative test for all flights arriving in Portugal, even for people with health passes and regardless of their point of origin or nationality.