UK clocks 90,000 daily coronavirus cases for new record
Daily COVID-19 case number records have been broken in the UK, with the country recording 88,376 infections on Thursday – its highest since the start of the pandemic.
Case numbers jumped by almost 10,000 from Wednesday and 146 new COVID-19 deaths were recorded.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging people to be cautious as the new variant surges.
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Boris Johnson is encouraging people to be careful of Omicron spreads in the UK. Bloomberg
He has also denied putting the UK under a covert lockdown following accusations from some of his own MPs that that he was putting the hospitality sector under effective restrictions.
England's Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty said the peak of the Omicron wave may decline quicker than other COVID-19 variants, the BBC reports.
But he expressed the escalation will be extremely rapid.
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People queue up to receive their booster shots, which Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Witty said can help build immunity against Omicron. Getty
Once more people gain immunity from either booster shots or being infected with the Omicron variant itself, Prof Witty said the rate of Omicron cases will likely start slowing down.
As a precautionary step the Queen has also cancelled her traditional pre-Christmas lunch for the second year running out of concern of the growing spread of the Omicron variant.
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