Tuesday, 15th October 2024

Read which country recorded first Omicron related death

According to the prime minister of the UK, at least one individual in the UK has died from the Omicron coronavirus variety.

Tuesday, 14th December 2021

Read which country recorded first Omicron related death

According to the prime minister of the UK, at least one individual in the UK has died from the Omicron coronavirus variety. Boris Johnson stated that the new variety was causing hospitalizations and that the "best thing" people could do was receive their booster shot.

Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, told MPs that Omicron was now responsible for 20% of cases in England.

The Prime Minister has set a new goal of offering a booster to all adults in England by the end of the month.

Mr Johnson advised people to recognize "the shear rate at which [Omicron] spreads across the population" and to abandon the notion that Omicron is a milder variation.

More than half a million individuals had signed up for the booster shot on Monday, which the prime minister characterized as an "amazing feat."

On Monday, the UK reported 54,661 new coronavirus infections, with 38 deaths occurring within 28 days after a positive test.

Although there have been 4,713 documented instances of the Omicron variety, Mr Javid stated that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimates that there are currently over 200,000 daily infections.

In London, Omicron has increased to almost 44% of cases and is anticipated to become the prevalent form in the next 48 hours, he said.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stated that currently, there are 4,713 Omicron infections. With Omicron doubling every two to three days, it may swiftly expand from modest to massive numbers.

The government's strategy to combat the Omicron variant will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday, with a Conservative revolt predicted. However, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was his party's "patriotic duty" to support the measures.

He said Labour supported the goal of distributing boosters to all adults by the end of the month in a televised address and urged people to acquire their boosters.

The UKHSA stated on Monday that ten persons with the Omicron type had been admitted to hospitals in England, ranging from 18 to 85 years old. The majority of them had received two doses of the Covid vaccine.

Mr Javid said the country should "expect those figures to drastically grow in the days and weeks ahead" because hospital admissions and deaths lag infections by approximately two weeks.

In reaction to the new variety, England's booster programme has been expanded, with online bookings for boosters opening on Monday for over-30s and 18 to 29-year-olds beginning on Wednesday.

The UK is in a "race between the virus and the vaccine," according to the health secretary, who also stressed that the vaccination push would come with "tough trade-offs," with primary care facilities focusing on urgent clinical needs and immunizations.

The obligation to relocate workers will not affect cancer treatments, according to the prime minister's official spokeswoman.

Setting the booster target, Mr Javid said, would entail "a large amount" of NHS staffing and would not guarantee that everyone would receive their vaccine by the end of the month.

According to him, the NHS had indicated that it would revert to its highest level of emergency preparation, implying that the reaction to Omicron could be coordinated as a national operation rather than being led by individual institutions.

He also stated that the NHS Covid card for overseas travel would be made available to children aged 12 to 15.

After it was stated on Tuesday that those who are completely vaccinated would be encouraged to do daily tests if they are identified as a contact of someone who has Covid, new orders for lateral flow tests on the government website were momentarily blocked due to excessive demand.

Mr Javid explained that the limits on ordering tests were related to delivery capacity rather than a scarcity of the tests themselves and that new agreements with Amazon and others had been struck to resolve this.

In addition to expanding boosters, new Plan B measures to prevent the spread of Omicron are being implemented in England, including encouraging individuals to work from home, requiring facemasks in most indoor public locations, and requiring Covid cards for access to nightclubs and other major venues.