The United Kingdom on Sunday reported more than 12,000 further confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the latest daily figures provided by health authorities on Sunday. The UK Health Security Agency said on Twitter there had been an additional 12,133 confirmed cases of Omicron over the previous 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 37,101.
Earlier, on Friday, The death toll from the Omicron variant jumped from one to seven in United Kingdom.
“We’ve shown in the past as government in dealing with this pandemic that we will do what is necessary, but it’s got to be backed up by data,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in reference to reports that the government is planning tighter lockdown restrictions due to the Omicron surge.
“We are watching the data and discussing it with our scientists and our best advisers almost on an hourly basis. We will monitor very carefully, and keep the situation under review,” he explained.
Ministers have received a briefing on the latest COVID-19 data and a meeting of the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A emergency committee will be held over the weekend to assess if further measures are to be brought in.
“I think if new restrictions are brought in, and by the way, it’s inevitable, there must be a major package of financial support for our hospitality, culture, and retail sectors,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said, who declared a “major incident” in the UK capital to help deal with the city’s massive surge in the coronavirus cases.
“I’m afraid over the last few days we’ve seen a major surge of Omicron. Although those in hospital is less than what it was this time last year, including those on ventilators, the number of positive cases is way above. In the last 24 hours, we’ve had almost 30,000 confirmed new cases, and in the last seven days, more than 130,000 confirmed new cases. So, the direction of the travel is only going one way,” he warned.
Current Plan B rules for England include Covid passes for certain events, face-masks in more places and people being urged to work from home if they can.
Other parts of the United Kingdom have similar rules in place, but Scotland has gone further by asking people to limit social contact to three households at a time in the run-up to Christmas.
Wales has also ordered nightclubs to close post-Christmas from December 27.
Meanwhile, the National Health Service (NHS) said it has delivered 4 million booster-shots this week, recording a week-to-week jump in booster-shots of more than two-thirds, as staff and volunteers have accelerated the “get boosted now” campaign to tackle the Omicron variant.
