The British capital is experiencing an explosion of contaminations, linked to the Omicron variant. “The Omicron variant has quickly become dominant with the number of cases increasing rapidly and the number of patients in our hospitals is on the rise again,” said the mayor.
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The Omicron wave sweeps over the capital of the United Kingdom. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said to himself, on Saturday, December 18, “extremely” concerned about the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, now dominant in the British capital. It triggered an alert procedure involving a coordinated response from the public services. Across the UK, 90,418 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded on Saturday, down slightly from the previous day (more than 93,000) and after three consecutive days of new daily records.
This procedure had already been triggered on January 8, 2021 when London hospitals were threatened with submersion. “The Omicron variant has quickly become dominant with the number of cases increasing rapidly and the number of patients in our hospitals is on the rise again”Sadiq Khan added, calling on all Londoners to get vaccinated. According to the City of London, the city has registered 65,525 new cases of coronavirus in the past seven days, including 26,418 in the past 24 hours.
Many public services such as hospitals, firefighters or the police are thus faced with staff shortages due to absences caused by the virus. The British health security agency said on Saturday that more than 10,000 new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant have been detected, bringing the total to nearly 25,000.
According to several British media, the government plans to ban indoor gatherings after Christmas for two weeks in an attempt to break the wave of contamination. One of the hardest hit countries, the United Kingdom has deplored more than 147,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.