Omicron will dominate European countries within weeks, pushing an already stretched health system further to the brink, said head of the European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) while urging people to get a booster jab.

Detected barely a month ago, the fast spreading strain of Covid has so far spread to 106 countries, according to the WHO. It has already become dominant in several countries, including in Denmark, Portugal and the United Kingdom, where its numbers are doubling every one and a half to 3 days, generating previously unseen transmission rates.