Britain has experienced an alarming rise in cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant with an additional 1,239 cases reported on Sunday, the highest daily rise yet. The current total case figure of the strain in Britain stands at 3,137 — although the real total is likely to be higher — and there are increasing fears its rapid spread could lead to stricter guidelines being brought in. The increase has prompted the nation's Covid Alert level to be raised to 4 and Boris Johnson is due to make an address on booster vaccines on Sunday night.
The rapid spread of the new variant has caused some health experts to call for a tightening of restrictions.
Of the total new cases, 1,196 new were reported in England with 2,953 overall recorded and another 38 cases were reported in Scotland on Sunday taking the total there to 159.
There were no additional cases reported in Wales, which currently has 15 total infections of the variant but five more cases were reported in Northern Ireland, which now has 10 in total.
The spike in figures comes following the announcement that booster jabs for over 30s in Britain will be offered from next week and that a new daily record has been set for booster vaccines, with 530,086 jabs administered across the UK on Saturday.
It puts the daily average for booster jabs above 400,000 for the first time.
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Chief medical adviser for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Dr Susan Hopkins said more COVID-19 measures may be needed to tackle the fast-spreading Omicron variant with the UK facing an "inevitable" large wave of infections.
She said lateral flow tests should be used before going out to meet anyone.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Dr Hopkins added: "I think we will have to reduce our social contacts as much as we can, which is the working-from-home guidance."
So far it has been suggested the Omicron strain, despite its high transmissibility, is less deadly. However, even if it turns out to be less severe, there have been warnings "a small percentage of a very large population will put many people in hospital".
Education Minister and Vaccines Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: "This is a big wave coming straight at us.
"If we see even half the severity that we saw with Delta then we are facing a very large number of hospitalisations and potential deaths.
On Sunday, speaking on Sky News' Trevor Philips, Mr Zahawi said it was now known that there are cases in hospital with Omicron.
He said: "It is now a race between the booster and that protection and the Omicron variant.
"We now have a variant that is so infectious that it will dominate and of course exponentially grow.
"It is highly infectious so the doubling rate is between two and three days, so very quickly Omicron will be the dominant variant in the United Kingdom and probably the rest of the world."
Mr Zahawi's comments follow the release of a study on Saturday that said projected infections could lead to a peak of more than 2,000 daily hospital admissions, with a total of 175,000 hospital admissions and 24,700 deaths between December 1 and April 30.
The report, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), showed Omicron is likely to be the dominant coronavirus variant by the end of the month.
The scientists, who advise the Government as part of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), found that "Omicron is outcompeting Delta rapidly by evading vaccines to a substantial degree".
The LSHTM’s Dr Nick Davies, who co-led the research, said: "If current trends continue, then Omicron may represent half of UK cases by the end of December."
Dr Rosanna Barnard, also from the LSHTM, added: "Our most pessimistic scenario suggests that we may have to endure more stringent restrictions to ensure the NHS is not overwhelmed."
Additional reporting by Frederica Miller