Nearly half of European countries have recorded Covid case increases over the last week. The U.S. could follow suit, but cases are still declining for now.

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Tue, 2022-03-15 09:24 — mike kraft

Covid cases rise in Europe as omicron subvariant spreads. Will the U.S. be next? Nearly half of European countries have recorded increases in new Covid cases over the last week. The U.S. could follow suit, but cases are still declining for now. NBC News

Nearly half of all European countries have recorded increases in new Covid-19 cases in the past week, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Among the countries with the biggest recent surges are Finland, where new cases jumped by 84 percent in its weekly case total, to nearly 62,500 weekly cases; Switzerland, whose weekly total rose by 45 percent, to 182,190; and the United Kingdom, which had a 31 percent increase, to a weekly total of 414,480 new cases. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy have also recorded double-digit percentage increases in their weekly tallies.

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The rising numbers are in contrast to trends in the U.S., where daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline. The U.S.'s daily death toll has dropped by 29 percent in the last two weeks, NBC News' tally shows.

Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick in England, said Europe's rise in infections is likely to be a result of the spread of the omicron subvariant known as BA.2, paired with waning immunity and the relaxation of mitigation policies.

"The U.S. certainly needs to take note and consider the impact of yet another more transmissible variant," Young said.

BA.2 is considered a subtype of omicron because although it has small variations that set it apart they're not enough for it to be a new lineage. Still, some research suggests BA.2 is even more transmissible than the original omicron strain.

Disease experts in the U.S. say they are indeed watching Europe's trends closely. ...

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