UK reports 12 deaths linked to omicron variant

At least 12 people have died of new coronavirus variant omicron which was first detected in South Africa while 104 more critical patients are undergoing treatment at various hospitals.

UK deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab disclosed the information in an interview with Times Radio on Monday (December 20).

“The government can’t make hard, fast guarantees that there will not be a Christmas lockdown. I’m not going to trail things when decisions haven’t been made,” he said when asked whether England can expect more restrictions in the coming days.

This comes as cases of the Omicron variant have risen by 50 per cent in just 24 hours to 37 thousand 101 as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a further 12 thousand133 cases on Monday.

Some 12,133 confirmed cases of Omicron were also reported on Sunday. However, these figures are likely to be undercounting the true numbers, as not all Covid cases are checked in labs to ascertain if they are the Omicron variant, the report said

Meanwhile, experts on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have warned that there are probably thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England alone.

The SAGE team has advised the government to limit social contact and ban the mixing of households during Christmas.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has also refused to rule out another lockdown before Christmas, the Daily Mail reported.

Health officials also briefed the Cabinet on Sunday that more measures are required to stop hospital admissions soaring above 3,000 per day in England.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson had earlier warned of a “tidal wave of Omicron” in the country. As the highly transmissible variant is known to evade vaccine efficacy, the country set a new target to administer booster doses to all by the end of December, from earlier January.

A yet-to-be peer-reviewed study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has also projected that under the assumption of low immune escape, the UK will see 24,700 deaths, while in the case of high immune escape, the country will witness 74 thousand 800 deaths.