LONDON, Dec 07, (Asia Free Press) Across the United Kingdom, the British health authorities have confirmed 90 more active cases of the new variant of Covid-19 called Omicron, which first emerged last month in Southern Africa, according to media reports.
These include 64 new cases in England, 23 in Scotland and three in Wales to reach figure 326. Northern Ireland has still not seen any confirmed Omicron case, a state-run Xinhua reported.
Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases from the University of East Anglia, told media that the Omicron variant could start “outcompeting” the dominant Delta variant within weeks.
“Spreading rather more quickly than the Delta variant”, while authorities in South Africa, where the mutation was first detected, have talked of a “rapid” increase in cases, Paul added while talking to media.
Britain registered 51,459 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 10,515,239, according to official figures issued to media personnel.
The country also reported a further 41 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 145,646. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Nearly 89 per cent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine, and around 81 per cent have received both doses, according to the latest figures. More than 35 per cent have received booster jabs, or the third dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Xinhua reported.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.
