Omicron has become the dominant variant of Covid-19 across Czechia, exceeding 50 percent of the examined positive cases in the country on Jan. 8, the National Institute of Public Health announced on Monday.
According to data, the impact of Omicron is felt far more in larger cities, where it is currently accounting for up to 79 percent of all coronavirus cases.
Public health experts are expecting a significant rise in the number of new Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks, fearing they could reach up to 50,000 new positive cases per day.
On Monday, Covid-19 test manufacturer, Diana Biotechnologies, said that its collaborating laboratories were registering more than 80 percent of positive cases with the Omicron variant. According to their modelling, the number of Omicron cases multiples in two-and-a-half to three days.
Experts believe that despite the Omicron variant being more easily transmissible, it does not affect the lungs to the same extent as previous variants and will therefore not result in such severe conditions requiring hospitalization.
However, the Czech Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan stated on Monday that Omicron may be as serious for the unvaccinated as the previous variants and, as a result, urged citizens to receive the booster dose that 2.86 million people in the Czech Republic have had to date.
