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© Reuters. Buyers are walking down Oxford Street in the midst of the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London, UK on 23 December 2021. REUTERS / Henry Nicholls
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Author: Andy Bruce
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain reported another day of record COVID-19 cases on Friday with new estimates of parts of London’s population carrying the virus, highlighting the steady progress of the Omicron variant.
Omicron’s rapid deployment has led to a rise in cases over the past seven days, especially in the capital.
About 1 in 20 in London probably had COVID-19 on 16 December and initial estimates – which can still be revised – suggest that this could rise from 10 to 1 on Sunday, the National Statistics Office (ONS) models showed on Friday.
Many industry and transport networks are struggling with staff shortages while sick staff are self-isolating, while UK hospitals have warned that they could affect patient safety.
However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who took up a lot of political capital because Christmas 2021 was “considerably better” than the previous year, rejected new cuts on Tuesday before the day, saying there was uncertainty about Omicron and the severity. hospitalization rates.
Government data showed 122,186 new cases, with more than 119,789 on Thursday and marking the third day of more than 100,000 cases.
Recent research on Omicron suggests that it has a lower hospitalization rate than previous variants of COVID-19, but health officials have maintained a cautious note about the forecast.
“There is a glimmer of hope for Christmas … but there is certainly no such thing as a serious threat at the moment,” said Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency.
“What we’ve got now is a fixed balance between something that seems like a lower risk of hospitalization (that’s great news), but it’s also a very transmissible variant and one that we know avoids some of our immune defenses.”
On Friday, the government reported 137 new deaths in the 28 days of the positive COVID-19 test, down from 147 on Thursday, bringing the total pandemic to 147,857 – the highest in Europe.
The ONS said the prevalence had risen everywhere in the UK, with Scotland showing the lowest infection rate on 1 December out of 65 out of 65 people.
The ONS estimates that about 1 in 35 people in England (equivalent to 1.54 million people) became infected with COVID-19 in the six days leading up to 19 December.
Early models in the next few days suggested that it could rise to more than 2 million people on Sunday, or about 1 in 25.
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