Mayor Sadiq Khan declares ‘a major incident’ in UK capital amid a surge in COVID-19

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Mayor Sadiq Khan declares ‘a major incident’ in UK capital amid a surge in COVID-19

Dec 19, 2021: A “major incident” has been announced in London amid “huge concern” over the spread of the covid 19 Omicron corona virus in the capital.

It came as London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Saturday that he was “incredibly worried” about staff absenteeism in key public services, including the NHS, the fire service and the police, due to the growing number of cases.

The mayor’s office said the announcement of a major incident would give authorities more time to work together and help each other reduce service disruptions and give booster jobs.

Sadiq Khan said, “The surge in cases of the Omicron variant across our capital is hugely concerning, so we are once again declaring a major incident because of the threat of COVID-19 to our city,”

“The Omicron variant has quickly become dominant, with cases increasing rapidly and the number of patients in our hospitals with COVID-19 on the rise again.

“We are already feeling the impact across the capital and while we are still learning about this variant, it’s right that London’s key agencies work closely together to minimise the impact on our city, including helping to protect the vital vaccination programme.”

Khan urged people to come forward for their booster and said for those who did not even have the first dose of vaccine that it was “never too late” to get a jab.

Omecron variant now accounts for the majosity of corona virus cases in London, with figures released on Saturday by the UK Health Security Agency stating that 83.4 per cent of the samples identified in the capital between 15 and 16 December were omicron.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in London, the largest increase in cases in the last seven days, rose to 1,534, up 28.6 per cent from the previous week, according to official figures on Friday.

Omicron cases in the UK jumped sharply to almost 25,000 while the total number of reported deaths among people with it so far rose to seven, according to British health authorities.

Meanwhile, 90,418 daily COVID cases were reported across the UK on Saturday, after days of record highs.

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