According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at least one person in the UK has died with the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Johnson said the new variant has also been resulting in hospital admissions, and the “best thing” people could do was get their booster jab. Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that Omicron now represents 20% of COVID-19 cases in England, while on Monday, it was confirmed that 10 people had been admitted to hospital with the variant.
Recently, the PM set a new target for all adults in England to be offered a booster jab by the end of the month. Johnson said that people needed to recognise “the sheer pace at which the Omicron variant is accelerating through the population” and that they should also set aside the idea that it’s a milder variant.
Taking to Twitter, Boris Johnson said that more than half a million people had booked their booster jab on Monday, which he described as an “incredible feat”.
The Health Secretary described the UK as being in a “race between the virus and the vaccine”, stressing that the vaccination push would come with “difficult trade-offs”, with primary care services focusing on urgent clinical needs and vaccines.
With this being said, it has been made clear by the PM’s official spokesperson that cancer treatments will not be affected by the requirement to redeploy staff.
