The ECDC has declared the recently discovered Omicron variant B.1.1.529 as a Variant of Concern in its latest bulletin.
It’s unprecedented for this procedure to happen so quickly. The Omicron variant hadn’t even been named by the WHO when the ECDC listed it as a VOC, underlining the very grave potential for this new virus to overtake Delta as the main variant of concern in Europe in the middle of the existing winter wave.
