World Health Organization
Sales had increased by 0.3% the month before. The World Health Organization sounded the alarm about the new COVID-19 variant in late November.
The stark warning from the WHO cited estimates from the Institute of Health Metrics at the University of Washington.
COVID-19 cases involving the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission.
More than 40 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the omicron variant so far, but nearly all of them were only mildly ill -- even the unvaccinated patients.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Nearly 20 countries have recorded the variant, triggering travel bans across the world.
Dutch health authorities said the coronavirus variant was found in samples taken before South Africa first reported the variant to the World Health Organization.
“Many of us might think we are done with COVID-19. It’s not done with us,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
The variant appears to be spreading more rapidly among young people in their 20s and 30s, alarming health professionals.
The variant, recently dubbed omicron, was first noticed in South Africa and has spread to several other nations.
The World Health Organization has declared omicron a variant of concern.