The Omicron variant is “probably the most significant threat” to public since the start of the covid pandemic, one of the UK’s leading medical advisers has warned.
Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, said that the new variant will lead to huge rise in the number of cases over the next few days that could put the NHS in “serious peril”.
Harries delivered her message to MPs on the Commons Transport Committee amid suggestions that more than one million people will have to isolate with covid on Christmas Day as the new variant rips through the population.
She further warned the covid infection figures that will appear in the next few days could be “quite staggering” compared to rate of growth of previous variants.