<b>Live updates: follow the latest news on </b><a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/coronavirus/2021/11/29/omicron-live-updates-covid-variant-vaccine-test-cases-travel/"><b>Covid-19 variant Omicron</b></a> The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2021/12/15/uk-daily-covid-infections-reach-highest-level-since-start-of-pandemic/" target="_blank">Omicron variant is surging across the UK</a>, with daily confirmed Covid-19 cases reaching a new high of 78,610 and Prof Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, warning the public that “records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks". Prof Whitty spoke of “two epidemics, on top of one another” as data showed Omicron cases doubling every day and research suggesting it multiplies 70 times faster than Delta in human airways. Officials said this week that at least 200,000 infections were likely to be present in the UK. Here are the numbers behind the outbreak. On Thursday, the highest number of new daily cases in the UK since the start of the pandemic were reported. The daily cases figure eclipsed the previous record of 68,053, reported on January 8 this year as the country faced a second wave of the outbreak. Since the first Covid cases appeared in China in 2019, the pandemic has overtaken large aspects of everyday life with lockdowns, economic slumps and the race to find a vaccine and cure. Normality keeps daring to hint at being just around the corner, but each time, successive waves and new mutations have forced new restrictions. There have been 5,348,671 deaths and 245,013,524 recoveries. The concern is that the UK is at the start of the outbreak and more cases will be confirmed over the next week, with more hospital admissions. If two-day doubling continues, there will be 640,000 Omicron infections by December 25. Prof Whitty recommends people limit their socialising. Omicron is already the dominant strain in London, accounting for about 60 per cent of cases. Statistician Prof David Spiegelhalter said; “Millions of people are going to catch this over the next few weeks and months and this is going to cause huge disruption from people being off work or whatever.” Accelerating the drive to get more people through the initial two doses and the third booster is the key part of fighting the Omicron wave. In England, 39.3 million people or 70.1 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated. In Scotland, the figures are 3.98 million and 72.9 per cent. For Wales, it’s 2.28 million and 72.8 per cent, while Northern Ireland has 1.29 million and 68.2 per cent. There have been 122 million doses administered across the UK. The UK government has opened up the booster campaign to most of the population. Everyone in England over the age of 18 is now eligible for the booster and the only limit is the time period after the second jab. The commitment also saw a big rise in booster injections administered, with more than 500,000 a day for earlier this week. Mr Johnson said he wanted to offer boosters to everyone by the end of the month. The Omicron variant of coronavirus multiplies 70 times faster than Delta in human airways, researchers have said. The team of scientists in Hong Kong say their findings provide the first information on how the highly transmissible strain infects people. The study also suggests that Omicron replicates less well in human lung tissue compared with the original strain of the virus, which they said could indicate a lower severity of disease.
