Britain reported another day of record COVID-19 cases on Friday, with new estimates showing that London’s population has the virus, underscoring the relentless advance of Omicron’s version.
The rapid spread of Omicron has led to a surge in cases over the past seven days, especially in the capital.
Around 1 in 20 Londoners had Covid-19 on 16 December and initial estimates – which have yet to be revised – suggest it could rise to 1 in 10 on Sunday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) K models showed up on Friday.
Many industries and transport networks are grappling with staff shortages as sick workers isolate themselves, while UK hospitals have warned of the risk of impact on patient safety.
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However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has put considerable political capital on Christmas 2021 as being “much better” than the previous year, rejected the new restrictions earlier in the day on Tuesday, saying Omicron’s There was uncertainty about the severity and the rate of hospitalization.
Government figures showed 122,186 new cases rising from 119,789 on Thursday and over 100,000 cases in the third day.
While recent research on Omicron suggests that hospitalization rates for COVID-19 are lower than in previous versions, health officials have taken a cautious note of the outlook.
“There is a glimmer of hope for Christmas, but it is certainly not at the point where we can mitigate that grave threat,” Jenny Harris, head of the UK Health Protection Agency, told the BBC.
“What we’ve got now is a very fine balance between something that looks like a low risk of hospitalization – which is great news – but equally a highly permeable version and what we know is our evades some of the immune defenses.”
On Friday, the government reported 137 new deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, down from 147 on Thursday, and the total during the pandemic to 147,857 – the highest in Europe.
The ONS said the spread had increased in all parts of the United Kingdom, with Scotland showing the lowest rate of infection at 1 in 65 people on 19 December.
ONS estimates showed that around 1 in 35 people in England – the equivalent of 1.54 million people – were infected with COVID-19 during the six days to 19 December.
Early modeling from later days suggested that the number could have risen to over 2 million people on Sunday, or around 1 in 25.
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