The same day when thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of London against the vaccine pass, in effect from Monday, the mayor of London said he was "immensely concerned" by the spread of Omicron.
This variant of the coronavirus is now dominant in the British capital.
So much so that Sadiq Khan launched an alert procedure this Saturday, involving a coordinated response from public services.
"The increase in the number of cases of the Omicron variant in our capital is of great concern", worries the elected Labor representative in a press release.
This is the second time since the start of the pandemic that he has declared a “major incident”: this procedure had already been triggered on January 8, 2021, when London hospitals were threatened with flooding.
“The Omicron variant has quickly become dominant, with the number of cases increasing rapidly and the number of patients in our hospitals is on the rise again,” added Sadiq Khan, calling on all Londoners to be vaccinated.
According to the City of London, the city has registered 65,525 new cases of coronavirus in the past seven days, including 26,418 in the past 24 hours.
Many public services such as fire-fighting hospitals or the police are thus faced with staff shortages due to absences caused by the virus.
More than 93,000 new cases of Covid
The British health security agency said on Saturday that more than 10,000 new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant have been detected, bringing the total to nearly 25,000. As of Friday, more than 93,000 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in total, breaking a new record for the third day in a row.
According to several British media, the government plans to ban indoor gatherings after Christmas for two weeks in an attempt to break the wave of contamination.
One of the hardest hit countries, the United Kingdom has deplored more than 147,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.