Hospital admissions are rising across Europe and the US as highly transmissible Covid-19 variants drive infections, but the resulting illness is less likely to be severe or cause death than in previous waves, according to data analysed by the Financial Times and health experts.
The number of new Covid admissions has grown by 40 per cent in the last week in France, 34 per cent in England and more than 20 per cent in several other European countries. The wave has been fuelled by the BA.5 Omicron sub-variant.
Maurizio Cecconi, president of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, said cases were rising in France, Italy and Germany. However, he added that cases had fallen in Portugal, which was in the vanguard of a fifth Covid wave in Europe.