Latvia reports nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 cases amid fast spread of Omicron

Riga (Latvia), January 7: Latvia registered 1,994 COVID-19 cases on Thursday as the Baltic country was bracing for a massive wave of infections caused by the Omicron variant.The daily figure is the highest since Oct. 30, 2021 when Latvia reported 2,879 cases amid a surge of the Delta variant.Jurijs Perevoscikovs, head of the analysis and prophylaxis department of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), told a government meeting that Omicron was rapidly displacing Delta and probably accounted for about half of new infections in Latvia.Latvia's cumulative two-week COVID-19 incidence hit 686.2 cases per 100,000 residents on Thursday, growing from 631.3 the day before.Out of the 11,287 people tested for COVID-19 over the past day, 17.7 percent returned positive tests, the third highest percentage recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic.As of Jan. 2, Latvia had confirmed 644 Omicron cases. By Jan. 5, the number had grown to 1,419.Source: Xinhua