More places in Europe and the U.S. were tightening restrictions, canceling holiday gatherings and bracing for a surge in new Covid-19 cases, as officials worked to boost testing and healthcare capacity amid the rising risk from the Omicron variant.
The coronavirus’s Omicron variant has been detected in 89 countries, and Covid-19 cases of the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission, the World Health Organization said Saturday. The variant is spreading rapidly even in countries with high levels of immunity in the population, the WHO said.
