(London) Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on Saturday he was “extremely” concerned about the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, now dominant in the British capital, and triggered an alert procedure involving a coordinated response from public services.
Across the UK, 90,418 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Saturday, down slightly from the previous day (over 93,000) and after three consecutive days of new daily records.
“The increase in the number of cases of the Omicron variant in our capital is extremely worrying,” the Labor mayor of London said in a statement, announcing that he had declared for the second time since the start of the pandemic a “major incident”.
PHOTO MAY JAMES, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
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,” added Sadiq Khan, calling on all Londoners to be 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.
On Friday, more than 93,000 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in total, breaking a new record for the third day in a row.
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.