Omicron surge: record Covid-19 cases in UK as public warned to scale back Christmas plans
- A total of 78,610 new cases reported on Wednesday, about 10,000 more than the previous high nearly a year ago
- Britain is being hit by ‘two epidemics on top of each other’, says England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty
England’s chief medical officer warned people not to mix with others unless they have to in the run-up to Christmas after Britain recorded its most daily coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
With a new highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus surging across Britain, a further 78,610 Covid-19 infections were reported on Wednesday, about 10,000 more than the previous high reported in January.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that Britain is being hit by “two epidemics on top of each other” as he urged the public to scale back their Christmas plans.
“People should be prioritising those things, and only those things, that really matter to them,” he told a news conference. “Don’t mix with people you don’t have to.”
Whitty warned that the number of daily cases would continue to break records in the next few weeks and a big rise in hospitalisations is “a nailed-on prospect”.