WHO warns of Omicron overload as China, Europe impose new curbs

The World Health Organisation has delivered another chilling warning, suggesting healthcare systems could be overwhelmed by Omicron, despite its milder symptoms.

The WHO warned Tuesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant could overwhelm healthcare systems despite early studies suggesting it causes milder disease, as China and Germany reintroduced tough restrictions to stem new infections.

Covid-19 surges have wreaked havoc worldwide, forcing many nations to make tough choices between economically punishing restrictions to control the spread of the virus and keeping society open.

Contact restrictions were in place in Germany for the second year in a row heading into the New Year, as Europe’s biggest economy shuttered nightclubs and forced sports competitions behind closed doors.

The hundreds of thousands of affected residents there joined the 13 million people in the city of Xi’an, who entered a sixth day of home confinement as China battled its highest daily case numbers in 21 months.

The World Health Organisation has warned Omicron could overwhelm global health systems, despite its milder symptoms. Pictured: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photo by Christopher Black / World Health Organisation / AFP

“I’m about to be starved to death,” wrote one Xi’an resident on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

”There’s no food, my housing compound won’t let me out, and I’m about to run out of instant noodles … please help!”

This lockdown is the most sweeping in China since the similar-sized city of Wuhan was cut off from the world in the early days of the pandemic.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant has propelled the surges in many countries, with the Netherlands and Switzerland both saying Tuesday that it has become the dominant strain in their countries.

The WHO warned against complacency even though preliminary findings suggest Omicron causes milder disease.

To hold back the tide, European nations brought back curbs with painful economic and social consequences.

China has imposed a harsh lockdown on the 13 million residents of Xi’an, which includes tough rules that could see locals jailed for driving. Photo by AFP

The Nordic country, like Sweden, had begun requiring negative tests for incoming non-resident travellers from Tuesday, a day after Denmark — which currently has the world’s highest rate of infection per capita — applied the same measure.

But a Belgian court thwarted Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s plans to introduce further restrictions by suspending an order closing entertainment venues.

Beyond social strife, the pandemic has been punishing economically, in particular for sectors like travel.

Multiple airlines have blamed staffing shortages caused by spikes of Omicron cases.

But US President Joe Biden offered some respite to the travel sector on Tuesday by announcing an end to a travel ban on eight southern African countries imposed in response to the emergence of Omicron.

He stressed that Omicron would not have the same impact as the initial Covid outbreak or the Delta variant surge this year.