Twelve people have died in the United Kingdom after being infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has told Times Radio. In addition, 104 people with this variant are currently in hospitals.
The British are dealing with a significant advance of the coronavirus, partly due to omicron. The variant is extra contagious, but there is still limited information available about the danger. Omicron was only discovered a month ago in South Africa. More than 37,000 infections with the variant have been reported in the UK since then, but authorities believe the true number of omicron infections is much higher.
Nearly 550,000 new corona infections were reported in the UK last week, but scientists consider it likely that hundreds of thousands of people are infected every day. The government has already taken new corona measures for England and would consider more restrictions.
At the same time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is grappling with scandals that cast his government in a bad light. Following rumours of partying at 10 Downing Street, a photo was allegedly taken in the garden of Johnson’s office and residence during last year’s lockdown has surfaced. Johnson, his wife and seventeen employees can be seen on it.
They don’t keep their distance, and there are bottles and glasses of wine on the tables. However, Raab doesn’t think it was a party. He told Times Radio that the garden is also used as a workplace.