UK logs record 122,186 new Covid cases amid glimmer of Christmas hope

The UK on Friday recorded another daily COVID-19 infection high at 122,186, up from 119,789 cases the previous day, as experts pointed to a glimmer of Christmas hope after studies showed that the Omicron variant is much less severe than the previously dominant Delta variant.

In additional data released by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), 1.74 million people in the UK had coronavirus on December 19, up by more than 368,000 on the figure three days earlier. This equates to 2.7 per cent of the population or one in 35 people. In London, that figure is even higher at one in 20, driven by the rapidly transmissible Omicron variant.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which released a detailed analysis of real world Omicron data on Thursday, said its findings offer some hope but the additional burden on the National Health Service (NHS) due to staff COVID positive tests continues to be a strain.

There is a glimmer of Christmas hope... but it definitely isn't yet at the point where we could downgrade that serious threat, Dr Jenny Harries, UKHSA Chief Executive, told the BBC.

What we have got now is a really fine balance between something that looks like a lower risk of hospitalisation which is great news but equally a highly transmissible variant and one that we know evades some of our immune defences, so it is a very balanced position," she said.

The UKHSA estimates that someone with Omicron is between 31 per cent and 45 per cent less likely to attend A&E and 50 per cent to 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital than an individual with the Delta variant. However, Dr Harries warned there was much that is still unknown about Omicron.

"We don't yet know what the average length of stay for an individual is in a hospital," she said.

"We're not seeing very significant rises in intensive care utilisation or in the use of ventilation beds. Now that may be because a lot of the people who've been infected to date are actually younger people and we will see that coming through," she added.

But if the severity of the disease is actually "significantly lower than Delta" then some of the impact on the NHS may be less severe, she admitted.

The UKHSA analysis, along with the data gathered around Omicron on a daily basis, will influence the UK government's decision regarding whether or not further restrictions are needed in England. At present, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stuck to his Plan B measures for England face masks, Covid passes and working from home guidance with any new measures now expected only after Christmas next week.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all already announced tougher rules for nightclubs and other hospitality venues from Sunday to control gatherings and crowds.