(ANSA) - LONDON, JANUARY 04 - Covid infections recorded in the United Kingdom in the 24 hours, now largely fueled by the Omicron variant, skyrocket to 218,724, the absolute peak since the beginning of the pandemic and for the first time over 200,000. They certify - out of a total of well over 1.7 million tests - the day's data, which indicate, conversely, at stable levels at no more than 48 the deaths recorded, but also reveal a jump in the total number of hospitalizations to over 14,000, about two thousand more than yesterday . As for vaccines, the third doses reach 60% of the population over 12 and 75% of those entitled to it (that is, all over eighteen year olds).
The general data on hospitalizations is also updated last week and must certainly be retouched to its current state.
In England alone, the largest nation in the Kingdom, where about 80% of the British population lives, the National Health Service actually estimates more than 15,000 to date; with individual hospitals, such as those in Swindon, forced to declare a sort of state of alert due to the approaching exhaustion of the beds available at the moment. In any case, the sum of hospitalizations remains for now equal to half of the peaks touched last year during the first wave of the pandemic. With a large prevalence of unvaccinated people, according to government indications, even more marked (about 90%) among serious cases reserved for intensive care units. Meanwhile, the buffers followed on a weekly level exceed 10.2 million.
While the vaccines arrive at almost 52 million first doses administered, 47.5 million second and just under 35 million third doses of reinforcement (boosters).
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