Health: Worldwide Covid cases surpass 500 million as Omicron variant BA.2 surges – Gulf Digital News

Health: Worldwide Covid cases surpass 500 million as Omicron variant BA.2 surges – Gulf Digital News

Global Covid-19 cases surpassed 500 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the highly contagious BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron surges in many countries in Europe and Asia.

The rise of BA.2 has been blamed for recent surges in China as well as record infections in Europe. It has been called the "stealth variant" because it is slightly harder to track than others.

South Korea leads the world in the daily average number of new cases, reporting more than 182,000 new infections a day and accounting for one in every four infections globally, according to a Reuters analysis.

New cases are rising in 20 out of more than 240 countries and territories tracked, including Taiwan, Thailand and Bhutan.

Shanghai is fighting China's worst Covid-19 outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, with almost 25,000 new local cases reported, although the city's quarantine policy is criticized for separating children from parents and putting asymptomatic cases among those with symptoms.

"Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage," Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, told a briefing.

EUROPE, US STILL AFFECTED

Some European countries are now seeing a slower uptick in new cases, or even