The United Kingdom has registered 633 new infections with the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Saturday. This brings the total number of cases to 1,898. It is the largest increase within 24 hours so far for the UK.
The figures are especially high in England. There are a total of 1,757 Omicron cases, 121 in Scotland, 15 in Wales and 5 in Northern Ireland. The actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher, because not all people with coronavirus symptoms get tested, and in addition, not everyone is checked which variant they are infected with.
There are three thousand cases of Omicron infection worldwide, the majority in the UK.
A study by the renowned London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, says that the advance of the new model to the nearly 75,000 British deaths may lead to this winter, and the government has no further action in mind. In the most optimistic scenario, the researchers speak of 175,000 hospitalisations and 24,700 deaths between December and April. The researchers are basing themselves on the latest insights in the variant, which would lead more often to reinfection and against which vaccines may be less resistant.