The UK's first omicron victim was an unvaccinated pensioner taken in by online conspiracy theories, his stepson has claimed.

       The unnamed patient aged in his early 70s reportedly passed away on Monday in a Northampton hospital after falling ill with the Covid-19 variant at the beginning of this month.

       His stepson, who identified himself only as John from Smithfield, told Nick Ferrari's radio show on LBC that his stepfather believed conspiracy theories that the pandemic was a hoax, and had refused to get vaccinated against the virus.

       John told LBC: "He was a recluse, he never went out. He had his shopping brought to him. The only place he went to was the bin outside the block he lived in and the Post Office. He was one of the cleanest guys I've ever known.

       "He wasn't vaccinated at all. My sister is gutted but on the other hand she's a little bit angry that he never took these vaccines. She had an argument with him at the end of October about this very thing - getting vaccinated. He thought it was a conspiracy. He was an intelligent man but it's all these different things you're getting from online and different media.

       "He ate healthily, he didn't smoke, he hadn't drank in 30 years near enough. He was scared. He started to look good then it just went boom downhill."

       He added that if his stepfather had been vaccinated he might still be alive.

       "Had he been vaccinated, he would probably still be here. He might be ill, but he'd still be here," said John.

       "If you're vaccinated and you've got your booster, you should be alright. It's the ones that haven't got it, they're the ones that need to be worried now.

       "If you were lying in a bed with a mask on with 80 per cent oxygen being fired at you, you'd have regrets I think - I would."

       Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, confirmed earlier this week that at least one person had died with the omicron variant in the UK.

       There are currently 164 omicron cases confirmed in Northamptonshire.

       Toby Sanders, the chief executive of Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group, told the BBC that the situation in the county was "very, very critical" and the rise of the omicron variant could "overwhelm" the NHS.

       NHS England, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the UK Health Security Agency said they would not comment on individual cases.

       Local health authorities in Northamptonshire declined to comment.

       Omicron now represents 20 per cent of Covid-19 cases in England, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs this week.

       There are more than 4,700 confirmed cases of the variant in the country, with the first being identified on November 27.

       Omicron multiplies 70 times faster in the airways than delta yet replicates 10 times more slowly in the lungs, which may explain why it is very transmissible but less severe, scientists have said.

       Researchers at the University of Hong Kong studied how quickly the virus replicates in bronchial and lung tissue in the lab.

       They found that the virus struggled to reproduce efficiently in lung tissue, which may explain why people are experiencing cold-like symptoms, but few cases are progressing to serious disease.