London's New Year's Eve celebration in Trafalgar Square has been shelved with less than two weeks to go amid a surge in Omicron Covid cases.

       The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said a party for 6,500 people in the part-pedestrianised square was being cancelled “in the interests of public safety”.

       Omicron is now the dominant variant in London and the capital has seen some of the biggest rises in cases in the last seven days.

       Announcing the cancellation, Mr Khan said: “With infections of Covid-19 at record levels across our city and the UK, I'm determined to work closely with partners in our city to do everything we possibly can to slow the spread of the new variant and ensure our NHS services are not overwhelmed this winter.

       ”This means that we will no longer be hosting a celebration event for 6,500 people on Trafalgar Square this New Year's Eve. This will be very disappointing for many Londoners, but we must take the right steps to reduce the spread of the virus.“

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       He said a ”live broadcast spectacular celebrating our city and highlighting the most defining moments of 2021 will still be the centrepiece of London's New Year's Eve celebrations“ and urged people to stay home and watch it live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer because it will not be visible from the ground or key locations in the capital.

       The London mayor declared a major incident in London on Saturday after data showed there were 65,525 new confirmed cases in the city over the previous seven days.

       Figures published by the UK Health Security Agency on Saturday showed that 83.4 per cent of a sample of detectable cases in the capital from 15 and 16 December were found to have S gene target failure (SGTF), a way of detecting the likely presence of Omicron.

       The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in London has risen to 1,534, up 28.6 per cent on last week, according to government figures on Friday.

       A further 341 people with Covid were in hospital in London on 17 December, rising from 1,193 on 10 December.

       Government figures for vaccination as of Friday showed that 67.9 per cent (6.2 million) of Londoners aged 12 and over have had a first dose, 61.5 per cent (5.6 million) have had their second and 28.1 per cent (2.6million) have had a booster or third dose.

       London is just the latest capital to cancel its New Year celebrations. Rio in Brazil has shelved its party, while the firework display in Paris has also been cancelled and German politicians have banned the sale of fireworks on New Year's Eve.

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       Celebrations in New York’s Times Square are also uncertain as the variant has spread in the city.

       Additional reporting by PA