The UK has recorded the first death of a patient who contracted the Omicron variant.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s first Omicron fatality during a visit to a vaccination clinic near Paddington in west London on Monday morning. Dec. 13.
“Sadly, yes, Omicron is producing hospitalisations and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with Omicron,” he said.
“So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognise the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.”
Boris Johnson said that Omicron now represents about 40% of coronavirus cases in London.
He told broadcasters: “The risk is plainly there, we can see Omicron spiking now in London and some other parts of the country.
“Here in the capital it probably represents about 40% of the cases. By tomorrow it’ll be the majority of the cases and it’s increasing the whole time.”
Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said 10 people with Omicron were in hospital in England and estimated there were about 3,000 Omicron cases across the UK as he urged the public to get a third shot of a vaccine.
On the spread of Omicron, Mr Javid said “we haven’t seen anything like this before”, with a million cases expected by the end of December.
“Already in London, it’s gone from, in three weeks, almost nothing in terms of Covid infections to 40 per cent of all infections,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
