UK may be forced into Omicron lockdown as London declares ‘major incident’

The UK government is reportedly drawing up plans on Saturday for a short two-week circuit breaker lockdown later this month, after Christmas, to try and keep pace with the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The meetings remain ongoing as London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” in the UK capital as COVID infections surged and began impacting public services in the city. He confirmed that London remained the UK region with the largest number of COVID cases, with over 26,000 daily infections recorded on Friday.

“Hospital admissions are going up, but also staff absences are going up by a massive level,” he said.

“So I've taken the decision in consultation with our partners to declare a major incident today,” he said.

A major incident is any emergency which requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the city’s emergency services, indicating that emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response.

According to ‘The Times’, draft regulations are being prepared which would ban different households meeting indoors except for work purposes and pubs and restaurants being limited to outdoor service only.

Meanwhile, ‘The Financial Times’ reported that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been presented with a number of options under a so-called Plan C, ranging from "mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown".

Leaked minutes from the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), seen by the BBC, reveal scientists warning ministers that tougher measures need to be brought in "very soon" to try and keep hospitalisations within manageable levels for the National Health Service (NHS).

The reports of further lockdown restrictions come as the UK recorded another highest daily total of 93,045 COVID-19 infections on Friday, up 4,669 on the previous record of 88,376 set on Thursday.

While the Delta variant remains dominant in most parts of the country, Omicron has taken over in London and Scotland amid a massive surge.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in London, which has seen some of the biggest rises in cases in the last seven days, has climbed to 1,534, up 28.6 per cent on last week.

Meanwhile, half of adults in the UK have now had a COVID-19 booster dose after the programme was accelerated this week in the face of the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa. This week, online bookings opened to all adults alongside walk-in sites across the country.