London mayor declares major incident over omicron

The mayor of London on Saturday declared the surge of omicron infections in the British capital a "major incident".

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London said "We are incredibly concerned by the huge surge in the omicron variant. Over the last 24 hours, we've had the largest number of new cases since this pandemic began, more than 26,000. Hospital admissions are going up, but also staff absences are going up by massive levels, so I've taken the decision, in consultation with our partners, to declare a major incident today."

The World Health Organization reported on Saturday that the omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in 89 countries, and COVID-19 cases involving the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission and not just infections acquired abroad.