The UK has recorded the highest daily total of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began as the country faces “two epidemics on top of one another” as Omicron spreads.
Prof Chris Whitty, the UK Chief Medical Officer, warned that the Omicron variant taking over from the Delta strain was a “very serious threat”
He spoke alongside Boris Johnson at a Downing Street press conference where the Prime Minister made a renewed plea for people to “get boosted now” with a third dose of covid vaccine.
Johnson urged the public to “give Omicron both barrels” as official figures published showed there had been a record 78,610 new cases of coronavirus as of 9am on Wednesday and that hospitalisations were increasing.
The number of cases is the highest figure announced since mass testing began in summer last year, and surpasses the previous record of January 8 when 68,053 new cases were reported.
The number of Omicron cases reported in Scotland jumped by 140 per cent overnight, climbing from 110 new cases disclosed on Tuesday to 265 new cases on Wednesday, nearly doubling Scotland’s cumulative total of confirmed Omicron infections to 561 overnight.
The data from Public Health Scotland shows the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board with 220 cases and Lanarkshire health board with 142 cases remain the worst affected.
The stats came after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chief executive Dr Jenny Harries warned the strain is “probably the most significant threat” since the start of the pandemic.
Johnson said that a record 650,000 people had received booster jabs across the UK in one day on Tuesday.
England has reached 45 per cent of adults boosted while Scotland has become the first nation in UK to administer the third vaccination to more than 50 per cent of adult population.
At Downing Street Professor Whitty echoed the guidance issued by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying people should reduce their social contacts in the run-up to Christmas with their families.
He said: “I really think that people should be prioritising those things, and only those things, that really matter to them.”
Whitty said his own Christmas may be interrupted by the predicted surge in hospitalisations and a lack of staff.
He said: “We may end up with substantial gaps in rotas”.
Boris Johnson insisted that his approach was the right course and asked about the Conservative rebellion of nearly 100 MPs against the introduction of covid restrictions in England.
He said: “I am certainly not going to change the policies of the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe”.
