Scotland could see a “tsunami of infections” from the new Omicron variant, Nicola Sturgeon has said after it recorded 19 coronavirus-linked deaths and 5,018 cases in 24 hours.
The First Minister told a coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh the Covid-19 death toll in Scotland under the daily measure — of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days — now stands at 9,707.
An evidence paper published by the Scottish government on Friday says the rate at which cases of the new variant double is between 2.16 days and 2.66 days.
As of Thursday, 13.3% of all PCR tests showed signs of the new variant and it is “highly probable” that omicron will become the dominant variant,
Ms Sturgeon warned of a potentially huge impact on the NHS, saying that “a smaller percentage of a bigger number will still result in a massive number of cases who might need hospital care”.
She added: “Given the volume of people who could be infected by Omicron because of its greater transmissibility, even if most of those cases are mild, the number of cases of serious illness will put massive strain on the ability of the NHS to cope.”
A “significant strain” will also be put on the economy given the number of people who would be required to self isolate as a result of the transmissibility of the new variant, the First Minister said.
“The fact is, we do face a renewed and very severe challenge in the face of of the new Omicron variant.”
“To be blunt, because of the much greater and faster transmissibility of this new variant, we may be facing - indeed we may be starting to experience - a potential tsunami of infections.”
She added: “Omicron right now is rising exponentially, indeed what we are seeing in the data just now is perhaps the fastest exponential growth that we have seen in this pandemic so far.
“If that continues, and we have no reason, at this stage, to believe that it won’t, omicron is going to very quickly overtake Delta as the dominant strain in Scotland.
“Indeed, I think we can now say with some confidence that we expect it to overtake delta within days, not weeks - we estimate this could be as early as the very beginning of next week.
“It underlines our fear that a new wave may indeed be starting.”
There were 573 people in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down five on the day before, with 40 in intensive care, up one.
She stressed that, although evidence suggests omicron can evade some immunity conferred by vaccines, people should still get jabbed.
“Based on preliminary laboratory trials, the best evidence suggests it can evade to some extent the immunity conferred by vaccination.
“Now, and I want to triple underline this point, that does not mean that the vaccines will not significantly help us - being less effective is not the same, nowhere near the same as vaccines being ineffective and booster doses in particular will help retain a higher level of vaccine efficiency.”
