The death toll from Covid-19 in Greece, which has a population of around 10 million, exceeded 18,000 earlier this week. 

Across the country, occupancy of intensive care units is close to maximum capacity.

Austria to fine unvaccinated more than £6,000

In Austria, details emerged on Tuesday of plans for the unvaccinated to face fines of up to €7,200, (£6,127) from February.

Austria was the first country in Europe to announce it would make vaccination compulsory.

Under the draft bill leaked to Die Presse newspaper, all Austrians over the age of 12 will have to be vaccinated unless they have health reasons not to or are pregnant.

‘Staggering’ surge in infections sweeps South Africa

Meanwhile, doctors in South Africa said they were experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases linked to the omicron variant.

“We’re snowed under. It has exploded around here,” Dr Sharony Cohen, who runs a private practice in Johannesburg’s affluent Parktown North suburb, told The Telegraph.

“It is very early days, we will have to wait and see in the next week or two. This appears to be very, very infectious, we are inundated with patients.

“We don’t know what is happening going forward, so this is so stressful, the sheer number.”

Hatzollah, a private ambulance service run by members of the city’s Jewish community, has kept meticulous records of Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began.

It reports a “staggering” surge of infections in the last two and half weeks: from receiving no calls about Covid-19 to more than 60 a day.

Based on the current rate of increase, the omicron wave would soon eclipse South Africa’s summer delta variant wave in infection numbers, said a healthcare worker at Hatzollah.