New Omicron infections in the UK are running at 200,000 a day, dwarfing the number of officially confirmed cases, according to an estimate from the UK Health Security Agency.
The new figure, which was revealed by health secretary Sajid Javid in the House of Commons, added urgency to Boris Johnson’s promise to offer all eligible adults in England a Covid-19 vaccine booster jab by the end of the year.
The total number of Omicron cases, which have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, stood at around 4,700 on Monday after 1,576 new cases were recorded. But the UKHSA estimates the true number of daily infections is far higher based on its modelling.
As the UK recorded its first death of someone with the new variant, Javid said the NHS had declared Omicron a “national incident”, enabling central co-ordination of the health service’s emergency response. The fast-spreading new variant now represented 20 per cent of cases in England, while 10 patients were in hospital after being infected with Omicron, he added.
The NHS will have to distribute 18m booster jabs in England in less than three weeks to meet the prime minister’s target. But NHS leaders expressed doubt about the stretched health service’s ability to meet the target, which will require it to beat its daily record from March of 756,000 jabs in a single day for the remainder of the year.
The government’s vaccine booking website crashed temporarily on Monday because of a surge of demand by people for booster jabs.
People were also unable to order rapid antigen tests online after the government’s booking platform was “temporarily suspended to fulfil existing orders”, said the UKHSA. From Tuesday people who are double-vaccinated can avoid self-isolation after coming into contact with someone with Omicron if they test themselves daily.
Downing Street’s new target is for all eligible adults in England to have the chance to get their booster shot before the new year, either by booking an appointment for a jab or by going to a walk-in centre. Previously this goal was to have been achieved by the end of January.
NHS leaders welcomed the government’s latest booster rollout target but warned that achieving it would prove challenging for the already stretched health service.
“I’d be very surprised if it can all be done by the end of December,” said Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, who added that GPs would “make or break” the success of the rollout.
Owing to the “knackered” primary care workforce, he added the government target would only be “achievable” if extra staff were redeployed from elsewhere.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS hospitals and other services, said it was “unlikely” all 18m people would have “actually received” a booster shot by the end of the year but she added that the campaign to meet the target “would help make significant inroads into those numbers”.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, said it may also prove difficult to convince all 18m people of the need for a booster over the festive period.
In a sign of the potential load facing the health service, Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, and Stephen Powis, NHS Improvement chief executive, have written to senior staff, saying at least half of patients medically fit to be sent home but still in hospital due to a lack of community support would have to be discharged “to release the maximum number of beds”. This would be done via working with local authorities, hospices and care homes.
The letter, obtained by the Health Service Journal, suggests in some circumstances hotel beds could be used to free space.
Pritchard and Powis called for particular focus on managing oxygen supplies and reviewing how critical care capacity can be expanded.
Long queues formed outside vaccine walk-in centres across London as people responded to the government call to get a booster shot. Yas Davami, 34, said she had decided to endure a four-hour wait at St Thomas’ hospital, on the opposite bank of the Thames from the Houses of Parliament, after being unable to book online.
“I went online and there appeared to be no appointments until mid-January and not everywhere is offering walk-ins”, she added.
About 650 military personnel will support the accelerated booster programme in England, said the Ministry of Defence.
The health secretary said Omicron represented 44 per cent of cases in London, and he expected the new variant to become dominant in the UK capital within 48 hours.
The NHS reported that 397,532 booster jabs were administered on Sunday, the most for a Sunday and 37 per cent higher than seven days previously. Meanwhile, a further 54,661 people were recorded as testing positive for Covid-19 in the latest 24-hour period, up from 51,459 one week earlier.