Dozens test positive for Omicron in Denmark after school Christmas lunch
- More than 1,000 more were potentially exposed after the November 27 event, Danish officials said
- It is not yet clear how transmissible Omicron is or whether it causes more severe symptoms
Sixty-four people tested positive for the Omicron variant after a Christmas lunch attended by 150 people in Denmark.
It means that more than a third of attendees came away with the recently-discovered variant after the event on November 27.
More than a thousand more “close contacts” or “close contact to close contacts” were also potentially exposed, Andreas Peder Schultz, a spokesperson for the Danish Patient Safety Authority, said on Monday.
The event was at a community centre in the Viborg region of Denmark, according to the Viborg Flokeblad local newspaper. Students from two local schools took part, it said.
It was also not immediately clear how severe their symptoms were, or how many of the attendees were vaccinated.
Vaccine policy in Denmark allows children aged 12 and up to receive shots, and some 77 per cent of Danes were fully vaccinated as of December 1, per Our World in Data.
As of Monday, Denmark had recorded 261 Omicron cases. Tests there are revealing a surge of Omicron cases, leading officials to believe that it is spreading locally rather than only among travellers exposed abroad.