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THE OMICRON variant is spreading in communities across the UK, Sajid Javid revealed today.
The health secretary announced there are now 336 cases of the new Covid strain in the country.
Sajid Javid said Omicron is now spreading across the UK[/caption]
In an update to MPs this afternoon he said many of the new infections aren’t linked to international travel.
He told the Commons: “The Omicron variant is continuing to spread here and around the world.
“According to the latest data there are now 261 confirmed cases in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases across the UK to 336.
“This includes cases with no links to international travel. So, we can conclude that there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England.”
The health secretary said there was some evidence that “the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter” for Omicron.
He added: “We don’t yet have a complete picture of where Omicron causes more severe disease, or indeed how it interacts with the vaccines.
“So we can’t say for certain at this point whether Omicron has the potential to knock us off our road to recovery.
New travel curbs
Mr Javid formally announced new travel restrictions which will see all arrivals in the UK require a pre-departure test from 4am tomorrow.
Nigeria has also been added to the red list after 21 cases in the UK were linked to travel from the country.
The health secretary said the Omicron variant has now been found in 52 countries including many in Europe.
But he added that the UK’s rapid booster vaccine rollout means the UK is in good shape to fight the new strain.
Mr Javid acknowledged the new travel curbs will “bring disruption” and “impact people’s plans to spend time with their loved ones” over Christmas.
But he insisted: “We are leaving nothing to chance. We’ll be as prepared as possible for whatever this virus brings.
“Our strategy is to buy ourselves time and to strengthen our defences while our world-leading scientists assess this new variant and what it means for our fight against Covid 19.
“We cannot say for certain what it means for our response but we can say we’re doing everything in our power to strengthen our national defences.”
He added: “These are temporary measures while we improve our understanding of this new variant.
“I firmly believe that whenever we put in place curbs on people’s freedoms we must make sure they are absolutely necessary and we won’t keep these measures in place for a day longer than we have to.”
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