The UK’s Covid alert level has been raised, indicating substantial pressure on the NHS, amid concerns over the rapid increase in Omicron cases.

The decision to move from level 3 to 4 was taken following advice to ministers from the UK Health Security Agency, the UK chief medical officers and NHS England’s national medical director.

They said: “The emergence of Omicron adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and healthcare services. Early evidence shows that Omicron is spreading much faster than Delta and that vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from Omicron is reduced.”

Level 4 is defined by the government as “a Covid-19 epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high and direct Covid-19 pressure on healthcare services is widespread and substantial or rising”.

Announcing the decision, the chief medical officers and the NHS England medical director said the NHS was already under pressure unrelated to Covid and “with a variant spreading with increased transmissibility and reduced vaccine effectiveness, we are likely to see this pressure rise soon”.

More to follow

Post Source Guardian