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.
