The World Health Organization in Europe warned on Tuesday that an increase in Omicron cases around the world could increase the risk of a newer, more dangerous variant emerging. While the variant is spreading like wildfire around the world, it appears to be far less severe than previously feared, rising hopes that the pandemic can be overcome and life can return to normalcy. However, WHO senior emergencies officer Catherine Smallwood warned AFP that the rising infection rates could have the opposite effect." The more Omicron spreads, transmits, and replicates, the more likely it is to generate a new variant. Now, Omicron is lethal, it can kill... maybe a little less than Delta, but who knows what the next variant will throw out," Smallwood told AFP in an interview.Since the start of the pandemic, Europe has recorded more than 100 million Covid cases, with more than five million new cases reported in the final week of 2021, "almost dwarfing what we have seen in the past," Smallwood said. "We're in a very dangerous phase; infection rates in Western Europe are rising dramatically, and the full impact of that is not yet clear," she said. Smallwood also stated that, while "on an individual level, there's probably a lower risk of hospitalization" with the Omicron variant compared to Delta, Omicron may pose a greater threat overall due to the sheer number of cases."When you see the cases rise so dramatically, it's likely that a lot more people will get severe disease, end up in the hospital, and possibly die," she said. Britain faced warnings of an impending hospital crisis on Tuesday due to staff shortages caused by an outbreak of Omicron infections, as the country's daily Covid caseload surpassed 200,000 for the first time. Smallwood predicted that this scenario would play out in other European countries as well. "Even in well-capitalized, sophisticated health systems, there are real struggles going on right now, and it's likely that these will play out across the region as Omicron drives cases upwards."