With 78,610 positive cases recorded in 24 hours, the United Kingdom, facing an outbreak of contaminations linked to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, reached a record on Wednesday, according to official figures.
The previous record went back to January 8, 2021, at the height of the Alpha variant, when 68,053 positive cases had been recorded in this country severely affected by the pandemic, with now 146,791 deaths (+165 in 24 hours).
One death of the Omicron variant
Faced with the “tidal wave” of the highly contagious variant Omicron, in the words of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the British government has launched a vaccine booster campaign of unprecedented scale, with the objective of administering a dose additional to all adults by the end of December. They were 43% Wednesday to have received a third dose, while 81.5% of the population over 12 years old had the first two.
The Conservative leader is due to hold a press conference on Wednesday at 5 p.m. (local and GMT) to take stock of the campaign. In order to avoid seeing hospitals overwhelmed, his government also imposed additional restrictions, despite the rebellion of part of the conservative majority, such as teleworking, the wearing of masks indoors and the health passport for major events. On Monday, the United Kingdom recorded the first death officially linked to Omicron in Europe.