Covid live: UK reports more than 90,000 new cases; WHO says Omicron spreads significantly faster than Delta | World news

The Netherlands will go into a new lockdown from Sunday morning to try to limit Covid-19 infections because of the Omicron variant, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Saturday.

All non-essential shops, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theatres must shut from Sunday until January 14, while schools must close until at least January 9.

The number of guests that people are allowed in their house is also being cut from four to two, except for Christmas Day on December 25.

Rutte said: “The Netherlands is again shutting down.

“That is unavoidable because of the fifth wave that is coming at us with the Omicron variant,” Reuters reports.

Restrictions “similar in scale to the national lockdown” are needed to keep hospital admissions from coronavirus below previous peaks, experts in the UK have warned.

Amid high numbers of cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, documents released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) revealed the bleak picture painted by advisers throughout December as the threat from the strain rose.

Advice included that indoor mixing is the “biggest risk factor” for the spread of the variant of coronavirus, and that large gatherings risked creating “multiple spreading events”.

Two US Air Force crew members supporting US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s travel last week to the UK and south-east Asia have tested positive for the coronavirus, a spokesperson for the airforce said.

It brings the total number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 traveling on Blinken’s plane last week to three, Reuters reports.

“Both aircrew members were fully vaccinated. Neither had come into close contact with the secretary of state or senior staff,” an Air Force spokesperson told Reuters.

“One aircrew member is asymptomatic, while the other is experiencing mild symptoms.”

More data from Italy. Patients in hospital with coronavirus – not including those in intensive care – stood at 7,576 on Saturday, up from 7,520 a day earlier.
There were 95 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 70 on Friday.

The total number of intensive care patients increased to 953 from a previous 923, Reuters reports.

697,740 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 669,160, the health ministry said.

Official figures show that 817,625 people in the UK have received their booster Covid jab in the latest 24-hour period, which brings the total number of jabs delivered to more than 27 million.

Italy reported 123 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections was 28,064.
Italy has registered 135,544 deaths linked to Covid-19, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 5.365 million cases to date, Reuters reports.

Indoor mixing is the “biggest risk factor” for the spread of the Omicron variant, UK experts have warned, as documents revealed advisers cautioned that large gatherings risked creating “multiple spreading events”.

Documents released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on Saturday revealed the advice it had given to ministers.

And at a meeting on Thursday the experts said that stricter measures may be needed for Omicron, because of its transmissibility.

Minutes from the meeting said this could include “reducing group sizes, increasing physical distancing, reducing duration of contacts and closing high-risk premises”.

They said that lateral flow tests should also be used on a group basis – so if one person in a group tests positive before going to an event, their whole group should also not attend, even if they did not test positive.

The experts warned that “hospitalisations in the UK will reach high levels in about two weeks even if transmission is reduced soon” and predicted between 1,000 and 2,000 hospital admissions per day in England by the end of the year, PA reports.

Headlines from today’s coronavirus coverage in the UK and around the world include:

• More than 90,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported across the UK and 125 more people died from Covid-19, according to the latest figures. The increase in cases comes amid the suspected rapid spread of the new Omicron variant, which is believed to be more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus.
• They included 10,059 new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across the UK, bringing the total confirmed cases of the variant in the country to 24,968. The number of deaths in England of people with the Omicron variant rose to seven, while there were 85 people in hospital with it.
• The mayor of London declared a “major incident” over rapidly rising numbers of coronavirus infection in the capital that threatened to place strain on public services. Sadiq Khan took the decision after consulting with leaders from NHS London, local authorities and emergency and other essential services.
• UK cabinet ministers have received a briefing on the latest situation regarding the Omicron variant. There was no meeting of the cabinet or further discussion, according to a report by the PA Media news agency, but ministers were given an update on the data surrounding the variant.
• A government adviser said a “circuit breaker” lockdown after Christmas would be “probably too late” and “we need to act now” to head off a huge surge of infections. Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said plan B measures alone would not be enough.
• The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading significantly faster than Delta, the World Health Organization has said. The new variant had a doubling time of 1.5 to three days, said the UN health agency, which reported it had been detected in 89 countries across all six WHO regions as of 16 December.
• Almost 3,000 locations in England were being taken over by vaccination centres on Saturday. The football grounds Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Wembley were among them, as were the Christmas market at Chester Cathedral, the Liverpool Christmas Ice festival and Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

That’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for today. I’ll leave you in the capable hands of my colleague Nadeem Badshah.

More than 90,000 new cases of coronavirus have been reported across the UK and 125 more people have died from Covid-19, according to the latest official figures.

The increase in cases comes amid the suspected rapid spread of the new Omicron variant, which is believed to be more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus.

The figure for the number of deaths includes all individuals who have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 172,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The number of deaths in England of people with the Omicron variant has risen to seven, the UK Health Security Agency said, from the previous figure of one.

Hospital admissions in England for people with confirmed or suspected Omicron rose to 85, from 65.

The mayor of London has declared a “major incident” over rapidly rising numbers of coronavirus infection in the capital that threaten to place strain on public services.

Sadiq Khan took the decision, which allows for closer coordination between different public agencies, after consulting with leaders from NHS London, local authorities and emergency and other essential services, according to a statement.

It comes after the UK on Friday reported the largest 24-hour increase in the number of new cases since the pandemic began.

A major incident is defined as an event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agency, the mayor’s office said.

Khan said: “The surge in cases of the Omicron variant across our capital is hugely concerning, so we are once again declaring a major incident because of the threat of Covid-19 to our city.

“The Omicron variant has quickly become dominant with cases increasing rapidly and the number of patients in our hospitals with Covid-19 on the rise again. We are already feeling the impact across the capital and while we are still learning about this variant, it’s right that London’s key agencies work closely together to minimise the impact on our city, including helping to protect the vital vaccination programme.

“We know that the vaccine offer our best defence against the virus. There are now more clinics in London delivering vaccines than at any point during the pandemic. I urge all Londoners to book their appointment or to go to one of the many walk-in centres across the capital as soon as you can.”

Khan, from the opposition Labour party, also declared a major incident in January when rising Covid-19 cases threatened to overwhelm hospitals.

The Omicron variant is estimated to account for more than 80% of new Covid-19 cases in London.

Thousands of people are marching through London in a protest against vaccine passports, with the hashtag #londonprotest trending on Twitter.

Online posters advertising the event asked people taking part to gather from 12pm at Parliament Square in Westminster, from where they have since began a march through the capital.

Among those marching with protesters were Gillian McKeith, former host of Channel 4’s You Are What You Eat, and Maajid Nawaz, the LBC radio host.

In a video posted to Twitter, Nawaz pointed to a stream of people marching through the city, and said: “This is endless, it goes on as far as the eye can see. When I say we are coming, this is what I mean; you see how many people are coming.”

According to a report in the Express, the demonstration was organised by a coalition of groups including Take a Stand London, Save Our Rights UK, and The Great Reopening.

Many of those marching held placards that had been printed by a group called Together, which hosts an online petition against vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations and the government’s summary introduction of Covid powers that has been signed by more than 167,000 people.

The protest had its critics online, however, with some observers suggesting that by gathering together those taking part would make lockdowns more likely by increasing transmission of the virus.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has reported 10,059 new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across the UK.

This brings the total confirmed cases of the variant in the country to 24,968.

According to the latest figures released on Saturday, the number of confirmed Omicron cases in England stood at 23,168 – up 9,427 on the previous day’s total.

Cases in Northern Ireland rose to 827, a rise of 514.

Scotland’s cases have reached 792, an increase of 96.

In Wales there are 181, up 22 on the previous day.

Scotland has recorded nine new coronavirus deaths and 5,917 positive cases in the past 24 hours, according to the PA Media news agency.

The daily figures from the Scottish government show 494 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, of which 34 are in intensive care.

The Covid-19 death toll in Scotland under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – now stands at 9,780.

The test positivity rate stands at 12.2%.

A total of 4,369,398 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine while 3,988,961 have received their second dose and 2,436,952 have received a third dose or booster.