A major incident has been declared in London as Omicron continues to wreak havoc across the country.
It comes as a further 10,000 cases of the new variant were recorded in the UK today, bringing the total number of Omicron cases to nearly 25,000.
On Friday, 93,045 more cases of Covid-19 were confirmed - the highest daily total since the pandemic began and a rise of 4,669 on the previous record set on Thursday.
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Omicron is now thought to the dominant variant in London, Manchester and most other parts of the country.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in London, which has seen some of the biggest rises in cases in the last seven days, has risen to 1,534, up 28.6% on last week, according to Government figures.
A major incident has now been declared in the capital by the Mayor of London, the Mirror reports.
Declaring the major incident, Sadiq 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."
This is the second time a major incident has been declared in London due to coronavirus.
Boris Johnson has announced that he is due to chair a Cobra meeting this weekend with the devolved administrations to discuss the nation's response to Omicron.
It has not been confirmed exactly when the Cobra meeting will take place, but it is expected to be some time this weekend.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister and the First Minister agreed on the importance of close collaboration for the benefit of citizens across the UK.
"They discussed the shared challenges including the economic disruption caused by Covid and will continue to work together.
"The Prime Minister confirmed UK Government will be convening a Cobra meeting over the weekend with counterparts from the devolved administrations to continue discussions."
The latest emergency meeting comes as scientific advisers called on the Government to introduce a circuit-breaker lockdown to curb the spread of transmission.
Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said it was clear that Plan B measures alone would not be enough to stop the spiralling numbers of cases.
Prof Reicher, who was speaking to Times Radio in a personal capacity, said the time to act was now.
It comes amid reports officials have been drawing up draft plans for a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown after Christmas.
The Financial Times reported that Boris Johnson was presented with a number of options on Friday under a so-called Plan C, ranging from "mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown."
The Times reported that draft regulations were being prepared which could ban meeting others indoors except for work purposes and that pubs and restaurants would be limited to outdoor service only, for two weeks after Christmas.
