The World Health Organization’s senior executive warned that he’s ‘never been more worried about Covid-19’ than tonight.
David Nabarro (special envoy to WHO on Covid-19) stated that Omicron was spreading rapidly and is a serious issue not only for the UK, but all of Europe.
He urged everyone on earth to keep the super-mutant strain from spreading by avoiding social contact, wearing facemasks, and practicing good hygiene.
It comes after Britain today announced its highest ever daily Covid cases since the pandemic began with 78,610 people testing positive in the past 24 hours.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Professor Chris Whitty this evening delivered a stark warning over the need to think twice before attending Christmas parties, warning Omicron already makes up a third of cases and that Government modelling predicts up to 400,000 people are getting the mutant virus every day.
Speaking to Sky News, Dr Nabarro echoed Professor Whitty’s warning about Christmas parties and urged ‘every single human being’ to ‘minimise [social]Get in touch with what is most essential, and only then do what’s vital.
Dr Nabarro said the Omicron variant is spreading ‘superfast’ and that the strain has ‘a doubling time of numbers of cases every two to three days’.
It means: [Omicron]In one week, it will become eight times more severe. In two weeks, forty times as serious. Tremendous or even four hundred times as severe in just three weeks. Four weeks of more severe cases are almost a thousand.
He said that the increasing caseload of people, many of whom have received both vaccinations and are now at risk, could cause additional stress for already overwhelmed health systems around the globe.
‘If we are lucky then we won’t have high death rates but we will still get a very heavy load on health services and therefore on hospitals,’ he said.
Dr Nabarro stated that he couldn’t predict what the death or case would be from this latest version and said it wouldn’t be helpful to speculate.
He explained that any prediction was merely me sharing my hopes with you and cautioned that no one has the ability to know how many Omicrons will be given in the next weeks.
Below is the graph that shows Omicron cases. They don’t have an S gene (purple). To confirm Covid infections, PCR tests search for three genes. However Omicron has only two.
Below is the graph that shows Omicron cases. They don’t have an S gene (purple). To confirm Covid infections, PCR tests search for three genes. However Omicron has only two.
Earlier Professor Whitty told a Downing Street press conference that more cases records were going to be broken by the ultra-infectious Omicron variant and warned that it was a ‘nailed on prospect’ that thousands would be hospitalised over the coming weeks.
He advised people to prioritize who they are with in the lead up to Christmas or else risk getting the flu and having to spend the holiday alone.
Professor Whitty could not be pinned down on whether harsher lockdown curbs were necessary, pointing out that there were still several key unknowns about Omicron — such as how vaccines will perform and how severe it is.
He also warned against the possibility of milder strains in South Africa.
However, he said that the majority of people do this, which seems to be very smart. They prioritize social interaction that is important to them, while protecting those interactions by prioritizing less-important ones.
He agreed with the chief medical officer and said that everyone should think carefully about attending Christmas events.
When asked if Plan B was sufficient, he replied: “We believe that given the balance between risks and continuing uncertainty about Omicron this is the best approach to take. The right mix of approaches to accomplish these two things simultaneously.
Johnson also saluted the “absolutely crucial” booster drive which saw an unprecedented 611,000 jabs given out across the UK yesterday, despite chaotic scenes with long lines and people being turned down at clinics.
However, experts such as Dr Nabarro have expressed alarm to the Government.
Omicron was the biggest threat to the Pandemic, according to Dr Jenny Harries of the UK Health Security Agency. She could also put the NHS at serious risk.
Although modeling by her agency is widely disputable among scientists, she said to MPs that: “I’m sure for example that numbers we see over the next few data days will be quite astounding compared with the rate of growth we saw in cases for past variants.
The problem with this virus is its doubling time. It doubles days every day. At the moment, it is decreasing. It’s growing faster, it’s growing faster, it’s now less than two days.
Top SAGE Modeller Professor Graham Medley acknowledged that he fears the super-strain will trigger a “very large” wave of hospitalizations due to its transmissibility. Meanwhile, Professor Adam Finn, vaccine adviser, demanded action be taken to stop the spread of this virus.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, doubled down on Omicron’s claims to cause more hospitalizations than in previous waves.
The Covid rate per 100,000 in England’s regions is shown in this graph. The graph shows that there is a significant increase in cases in London (red), but the rate remains flat in most other areas.
This graph displays the average seven-day hospital admissions for different parts of England. This graph shows that there was a steady rise in hospital admissions in London (orange).