This article was published by AFP:

The world hit a record number of Covid infections in a week, an AFP tally revealed Wednesday, as the WHO warned that Omicron poses a "very high" risk and could yet overwhelm healthcare systems.

The highly transmissible variant has seen case records in multiple countries and registered infections were up 37 percent globally from December 22-28 compared to the previous seven-day period, according to the AFP tally based on national databases.

A total of 6.55 million cases were detected between 22-28 December, the highest figures since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020.

The surge, currently worst in Europe, has forced governments to walk a tightrope between re-imposing restrictions designed to stop hospitals becoming overwhelmed and the need to keep economies and societies open two years after the virus first emerged in late 2019.

Studies suggest Omicron, now the dominant strain in some countries, carries a reduced risk of being admitted to hospital, but the World Health Organization still urged caution.

"The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," the UN health agency said overnight.

"Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days."

More than 5.4 million people around the world have died from Covid-19, but the number of deaths declined to an average of 6,450 a day in the last week, the AFP tally said, the lowest since late October 2020.