After an epidemic of the virus, around 100 individuals in a prison for sex offenders were tested positive for Covid-19.
The virus has now been detected at the Category C prison in Pucklechurch.
According to BBC, staff carried out extensive testing on the 400-inmate site and now monitor the situation closely.
This incident occurs as the UK announces yesterday its highest daily coronavirus cases number ever. The highly transmissible Omicron variant is still on the rise.
Nearly 100 HMP Ashfield inmates in Pucklechurch (south Gloucestershire) have been positive for Covid-19.
Prison director of HMP Ashfield Martin Booth told the BBC staff were ‘cautiously optimistic’ further transmission was now contained and that the priority was to ‘keep everyone safe’ inside the Serco-run prison.
He also stated that 90 percent of the prisoners were double-jabbed.
Yesterday data revealed that more than 78,000 people had tested positive for Covid in the past 24 hours – a 50 per cent jump on last week, and eclipsing the previous record of 68,053 during the second wave in January.
UK Health Security Agency announced an additional 4,671 Omicron-confirmed cases. This brings the total official to 10,017. Because only a few positive variant tests are performed, this number is lower than it should be.
Minutes after the announcement of the surge, Professor Chris Whitty stated at a Downing Street press conference, that the new variant will’records be broken a lot in the coming weeks’. This is the dominant London variant.
He said that thousands will need to be admitted this winter.
Staff have since carried out mass testing at the site and are now closely monitoring the situation. (Stock image)
Omicron accounts for about a third the cases. However, Government modeling suggests that as many as 400,000 people will be infected every day.
Public health chiefs are now calling for ‘Plan C’ curbs as they warn there could be 1million daily cases by next month and 4,000 hospital admissions – levels similar to those seen during the January shutdown. But, projections of this magnitude are heavily doubted.
This comes just as Dr Jenny Harries from the UK Health Security Agency warned of the threat. She stated that cases are likely to be more severe than those seen in the past.
Graham Medley (Top SAGE Modeller) also said he worried that the super-strain would trigger a “very large” wave of hospitalizations. Meanwhile, Professor Adam Finn, vaccine adviser, demanded action to stop the ‘alarming spread’ of the virus.