OMICRON cases have risen by 54 per cent in 24 hours as Brits have been urged to get their boosters as soon as eligible.
There are now a total of 1,265 confirmed cases of the variant, up by 448 since yesterday, but the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) say there are likely thousands more.
The health agency provided the first UK-based batch of evidence on vaccine efficacy against the strain, showing that three shots were far more protective than two.
Dr Jenny Harries, UKHSA Chief Executive said: “Once again, we urge everyone who is able to get a booster jab to come forward and do so. It is the best defence we have against this highly transmissible new variant.”
Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “Today’s new data shows how important booster jabs are to protect us against this variant.
“They are our best defence and we have turbocharged our rollout programme inviting seven million more people over the age of 40 to get their booster jab so even more people get protection from this disease.
“I urge you to come forward as soon as you’re eligible to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe.”
Today a further 58,194 Covid cases were announced across the UK – the highest since July 15 – and 120 additional deaths.
Most cases are Delta. But Omicron is projected to become the dominant variant in the UK by mid-December, based on current trends, UKHSA said.
With dire warnings coming from outbreak modellers, an emergency Cobra meeting will be convened in Downing Street today.
Top Minister Michael Gove will gather Nicola Sturgeon and other devolved leaders this afternoon to thrash out an urgent Covid battle plan.
No10 is scrambling to stave off a winter surge and is begging Brits to get their boosters as Trending In The News’s Jabs Army campaign marshals its recruits.
But there are fears the Government will use a set of “Plan C” restrictions, such as using vaccine passports to get into pubs.
Downing Street today said there were no current plans to go harder than restrictions of mandatory masks, working from home and vaccine passports.
There have been few confirmed cases of Omicron reported by public health chiefs. But the team at UKHSA admit the figure is more likely to be ten times higher.
The Covid picture is changing so rapidly that infection surveys and genetic sequencing of tests to find cases of Omicron lag behind.
An expert has today claimed there could actually be more than 4,000 Brits catching Omicron each day.
The strain is accounting for 8.5 per cent of positive tests. And with 48,000 new diagnoses every day, it suggests some 4,000 are Omicron.
Professor Alastair Grant, a modeller from the University of East Anglia, revealed the stark figures on Twitter, saying the R rate of Omicron could be as high as 4.
It comes as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned there could be 25,000 cases of Omicron per day by December 20.
A “most likely” figure is 15,000, according to modelling in a Scottish Government evidence paper.
Ms Sturgeon said Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant of Covid-19 in Scotland in “days, not weeks”, with a “potential tsunami of infections”.
“A smaller percentage of a bigger number will still result in a massive number of cases who might need hospital care”, she warned.
Her comments echo those of Sage – the UK Government’s scientific advisory group – which said England’s hospitalisations could hit 1,000 a day by the end of the month, up from the current 760.
Ms Sturgeon announced stricter isolation rules for Scots, that household contacts will be asked to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status or a negative PCR test.
TOO SOON OR TOO LATE?
Prof Rowland Kao, the Sir Timothy O’Shea Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science, University of Edinburgh, said it was “sensible” to implement such a rule now, rather than later.
He said among many uncertainties about Omicron: “What we do know is that Omicron is spreading in Scotland so rapidly that it will be too late to act, if we wait for those uncertainties to be reduced enough to inform decisions.”
It comes after Professor John Edmunds, a member of Sage, suggested it would have been “too late to act” if ministers had waited for hospital rates to start ticking up before implementing Plan B in England.
He told a Royal Society of Medicine briefing on Thursday: “Because this thing is doubling so quickly, if we wait until we see significant numbers of cases in hospitals and in hospitals here in the UK … it will be far too late to act.
“I think it’s a necessary evil … it’s very damaging for parts of the economy, the hospitality sector, retail sector in particular – they’re going to be affected.
“Unfortunately, we have to do it. The rate at which this virus is spreading is doubling every two or three days.
“If you think what that means in a week, you go through about three doublings in a week, so the epidemic doubles and doubles again and doubles again … So you know, if you’ve got, let’s say, 1,000 infections today and then in a week’s time, you’ve got 8,000.
“And, you know, and in two weeks’ time you’ve got 64,000.”
Prof Edmunds said for this reason it was not an “overreaction” to use Plan B now.
But Tory MPs are threatening to vote against Plan B on Tuesday, with some branding the rules “authoritarian”.
While the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told people in England to work from home to avoid spreading the virus, he has said people don’t need to cancel their social events, such as Christmas parties.
Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics Infection Survey has begun to pick up infections of Omicron in it’s weekly sample of thousands of UK households.
It said these numbers are not yet sufficient to produce estimates of the total number across the nation.
ONS said around 891,500 people in England had Covid – the equivalent of around one in 60 people – in the week ending December 1.
Prof James Naismith, Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, and Professor of Structural Biology, University of Oxford, said prevalence of Covid was “high in all four nations”, and has been since August.
He added: “Without vaccination, we would have filled our hospitals. They are under strain with around 800 people a day being admitted.
“Every week around 900 much loved family members are lost to covid19, we should never forget the pain felt by so many.”
