COVID: UK records over 1 lakh cases in a span of 24 hours amid Omicron spread

The UK on Wednesday reported a record high COVID caseload amid the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant. As reported by AFP, the UK recorded around 1,06,122 virus cases in the last 24 hours.

The surge in cases was seen at a time when the global spread of the newly detected, highly mutated variant has become a cause of worry. Moreover, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced earlier in the day that the self-isolation period for people who test positive for COVID-19 in England, will be reduced from 10 to seven days. This will be for those who produce two negative lateral flow test (LFT) results on days six and seven since the start of their quarantine.

UK cuts self-isolation period from 10 to 7 days 

The change was made in consultation with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), according to Javid, and is intended to minimise interruption to frontline services and other businesses. Previously, if a person tested positive for Coronavirus, they had to self-isolate for 10 days.

"We want to reduce the disruption to people’s everyday lives caused by the pandemic so today we will be cutting the self-isolation period from 10 days to seven days for those people who take a lateral flow on day six and day seven and the result of both those tests are negative,” he said.

Apart from this, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to not impose further restrictions to stem the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID has been met with dismay by many scientists.

They argued that waiting until the New Year will be "too late" to have a significant impact on the pandemic. It may also be too late to tell what impact those limits would have had if they had been implemented earlier because the rate of growth in infection rates may have stagnated or dropped by then, they believed.

After holding a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Jonhson had earlier announced that he would not be implementing additional COVID restrictions as of now. He stated that data on the hospitalisation rate for people infected with the Omicron will be kept under "continuous evaluation".

Meanwhile, the government sources hinted that further restrictions might be imposed after Christmas, reported the British daily. However, with Omicron infections doubling every 48 hours in most parts of the UK, the country may have already reached a point where the pace of expansion begins to fall and case numbers plateau, the report added.

(With PTI Inputs)

Image: AP