Coronavirus cases should start to drop across the UK within the next one to three weeks, an expert has said.
Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said infection rates in London may already be plateauing.
He said cases numbers should now start to drop in the capital, with numbers in other regions dropping in around the next week to three weeks.
This is because the number of Omicron cases has been so high, and the variant has spread so rapidly, that it 'can't be sustained forever', Prof Ferguson added.
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Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I think I’m cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18 to 50 age group – which has been driving the Omicron epidemic – may possibly have plateaued.
"It’s too early to say whether they’re going down yet, but I think… this epidemic has spread so quickly in that group it hasn’t had time to really spread into the older age groups, which are at much greater risk of severe outcomes and hospitalisation, so we may see a different pattern in hospitalisations.
"Hospitalisations are still generally going up across the country and we may see high levels for some weeks.
"I would say that, with an epidemic which has been spreading so quickly and reaching such high numbers, it can’t sustain those numbers forever, so we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks.
"Whether they then drop precipitously, or we see a pattern a bit like we saw with Delta back in July of an initial drop and then quite a high plateau, remains to be seen."
Though Professor Ferguson, from Imperial College London, added that it was 'too difficult' to tell what the effect of opening schools again will be.
He said 'mild infection levels' may now rise in school-aged children.
He added that the 'good news' about Omicron is that 'it is certainly less severe' than previous variants of Covid.
This has helped keep hospital numbers down compared with previous peaks, he said.
"And then the vaccines – as we always expected they would – are holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well", Professor Ferguson said.
"That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be as, as the Prime Minister said, a difficult few weeks for the NHS.”
This came as minister for vaccines and public health Maggie Throup told broadcasters that the Government’s Plan B 'is working'.
She told Sky News: "As the Prime Minister said yesterday, we have got Plan B, which is people working from home, the Covid pass, face coverings and obviously the vaccine programme, which is so, so important."
She added: "Plan B is working, as you can see from the number of hospitalisations. It’s far, far fewer than this time last year and that’s so important as well, that the vaccines are working, the measures for people to work from home are working.
"The Prime Minister said that Plan B is working and there’ll be a Cabinet meeting today, and I don’t see any reason why we need to change. It’s important we do follow the data."
