COVID-19 cases are sweeping Europe once again — here is a breakdown of how each country has reacted to the surge.

Measures vary across the continent — from a national lockdown in Austria and moves towards mandatory vaccination in Germany, to the United Kingdom where only light restrictions are in place.

Concerns over the Omicron new variant detected in South Africa have prompted many European countries to put curbs on travel.

However, Delta remains by far the dominant force in Europe, accounting for the vast majority of new infections and putting increasing pressure on hospitals.

The World Health Organization warned in November that Europe and Central Asia could face another 700,000 COVID-19 deaths by March 1.

Here is a run-down of the latest situation in some of the European countries.

Denmark on Sunday (December 5) reported a worrisome increase to 183 confirmed cases of the new Omicron variant.

With the first case of omicron confirmed in California and more cases expected across the U.S., public health officials who know the difference between good and bad crisis communication say they can't afford to be quiet and wait until scientists know how risky the new variant is before they speak out.

"We don't want to just be silent on the matter, because then that can cause fear and then that can allow for misinformation to creep in," says Elya Franciscus, the epidemiology operations manager for COVID-19 in Harris County, Texas.