Covid-19: More than 10,000 new Omicron cases found in UK

A major incident has been declared in London and more than 10,000 new Omicron cases have been confirmed in the UK, as the variant surges across the country.

A further 90,418 daily Covid cases have been reported across the UK on Saturday, after days of record highs.

Cabinet ministers have been briefed on the latest Covid data.

London's mayor said he was "incredibly concerned" by the city's infection levels and the major incident was "a statement of how serious things are".

Sadiq Khan said Friday's 26,000 new cases in London were having an impact on staff absences for the capital's emergency services.

He said that NHS trusts, councils, the fire service, police and City Hall were "incredibly concerned by the huge surge in the Omicron variant".

In this context, the major incident status would allow organisations to work more closely together, he added.

Meanwhile, police officers suffered minor injuries during "scuffles" at a protest against coronavirus restrictions at Westminster.

Latest government data has shown there are 1534 Covid patients in London hospitals - up 28.6 percent on last week - with about 200 new admissions per day.

Saturday's data - which included the second-highest number of cases since mass testing began last year - also saw another 125 deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive test, down slightly on a week ago.

The World Health Organisation has said the Omicron variant has been identified in at least 89 countries - and is spreading significantly faster than the Delta strain.

It is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, it added.

In England, modelling indicates hospital admissions could peak at at least 3000 a day without intervention measures beyond the Plan B rules currently in place, advisers from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said in the leaked minutes of a meeting held on Thursday.

The current Plan B rules for England include Covid-19 passes for certain events, face masks in more places and people being urged to work from home if they can.

The other nations of the UK have already brought in similar rules - and Scotland has gone further by asking people to limit social contact to three households at a time in the run-up to Christmas. Wales has also ordered nightclubs to close from 27 December.

Omicron is now thought to be the dominant variant in England and Scotland, replacing Delta.

Over 800,000 booster doses were reported for the second consecutive day on Saturday, with 817,625 third jabs.

Dutch go into Christmas lockdown over Omicron wave

The Netherlands has announced a Christmas lockdown amid concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Non-essential shops, schools, bars, restaurants and other public venues will be closed until at least mid-January. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the restrictions were "unavoidable".

It marks the strictest rules to have been announced over Omicron so far.

Countries across Europe have been tightening restrictions as the heavily mutated variant spreads.

The new rules in the Netherlands, which come into force on Sunday, were announced following a meeting between the government and health experts.

"I stand here tonight in a sombre mood. And a lot of people watching will feel that way too," Rutte told a news conference on Saturday. "To sum it up in one sentence, the Netherlands will go back into lockdown from tomorrow."

Under the new rules, people are being urged to stay at home as much as possible. Strict limits will be placed on the number of people who can meet. A maximum of two guests over the age of 13 will be allowed in people's homes, and four on 24-26 December and on New Year's Eve.

The BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague said the announcement is being met with disbelief and dismay.

Officials said Omicron was expected to become the dominant variant in the Netherlands between Christmas and New Year. They urged people to get vaccinated.

For weeks, curfews have been placed on hospitality and cultural venues in an effort to limit its spread.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health has reported more than 2.9m coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and over 20,000 deaths.

UK cases could be as high as 300,000 - epidemiologist

Meanwhile, epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson, who is a UK government adviser but was not involved in Thursday's Sage meeting, said the true number of infections was likely to be much higher than those reported - and might be 300,000 a day.

On hospital admissions, he said there had been a significant surge in the London region, which was ahead of the rest of the country in terms of the spread of Omicron.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme in a personal capacity, Prof Ferguson said there were concerns "we'll be heading into something which has the risk of overwhelming the public health service".

The Liberal Democrats said the government needed to "come clean with the public about what Omicron means for Christmas".

The party's health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: "Ministers must act now to protect NHS staff and ensure that urgent NHS services are available to everyone over the Christmas period.

"The government should explain what additional public health protections are needed to bring the NHS back from the brink of collapse, and urgently get support to struggling businesses."

Hannah Essex, co-exec director at the British Chamber of Commerce, told BBC Breakfast further restrictions would need to come with a package of support for businesses.

She said the past 20 months had been "absolutely brutal" for businesses and doing nothing was not an option.

"They were just starting to see things pick up and this is the point at which we could see them fall over the edge. And that would be such a terrible shame and will inevitably lead to job losses as well," she added.

- BBC