• December 22, 2021

14 deaths and 129 hospitalised by Omicron: Christmas is on but restrictions may follow

LONDON Dec 22: There are currently 129 people in hospital with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and so far 14 people have died with it, junior health minister Gillian Keegan told Sky News on Wednesday.

Boris Johnson declared last evening that Christmas can definitely go ahead ‘cautiously’ – but new restrictions could be unveiled in as little as 48 hours, throwing New Year’s party plans into jeopardy.

Any restriction – even if it lasted just two, three or four weeks – would be devastating for businesses already hit by Omicron disruption, and would ruin the New Year plans of millions.

The threshold for introducing stricter rules beyond Christmas Day is if the number of daily Covid hospitalisations in London rises above 400, the i paper reports. If the figure remains below that, disruption is expected to be minimal.

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