The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said on Thursday that Omicron has the potential to “hit a million infections in the community” by the end of December.
Javid warned that the Omicron “spreads faster than any other Covid variants that they have seen so far.”
The government’s scientific advisors Sage has warned that there is potential for a peak of cases which will be far bigger than in January 2021 as there could ne 1,000 Omicron patients in hospital every day.
Appearing on Sky News Javid was asked about fears over Omicron, the health secretary said, “It spreads very, very quickly, it spreads faster than any other COVID variant we’ve seen so far.
“It’s doubling time… we estimate is between two and a half to three days.
“Which would mean at this rate by the end of this month we could hit about a million infections in the community throughout the UK.”
He said that by “taking decisive action now” we could “avoid action later”
Javid did admit “we don’t have all the answers on Omicron yet.”
He said, “What we do know is that by implementing Plan B… that will mean that we can slow the incursion of this and it buys us time to build our defences.”
Leave a Comment