There are now 4,713 confirmed cases of Omicron in the United Kingdom, including 10 people who have been hospitalized, the UK government said.
“While Omicron represents over 20% of cases in England — we’ve already seen it rise to over 44% in London, and we expect it to become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the capital in the next 48 hours,” said UK Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid in an oral statement to Parliament on COVID-19.
As a result of the surge in cases, the UK raised the COVID Alert level to 4, its second-highest level, over the weekend. And the National Health Service England has returned to its highest level of emergency preparedness: Level 4 National Incident.
Meanwhile, officials in Norway and Denmark also predicted a rapid increase in Omicron infections in their countries, saying they expect the variant to dominate the case counts over the next few days, according to The New York Times.
