London records almost 40,000 Covid cases in one week

Nearly 40,000 Covid cases have been confirmed in London in just a week, official figures have revealed.

They also show that more than 1,000 coronavirus patients are in the capital’s hospitals.

Health chiefs are seeking to speed up the roll-out of boosters, and get more people to have first and second doses, to combat the threat from the Omicron variant.

So far, 1,986,463 boosters, or third doses for individuals vulnerable to the virus, have been administered in the city, as well as 6,183,059 first dose vaccines and 5,615,689 second dose.

Ministers are ramping up the vaccination campaign, with more innoculation sites due to open, however, they are facing criticism of the slow speed of the rollout.

The number of confirmed Covid cases has risen to 39,877 in a week in London, according to the figures published on Sunday.

The highest daily number was 6,901 on Thursday, with 4,713 on Sunday.

The UK Health Security Agency said a further 86 cases of Omicron had been confirmed in the UK on Sunday, 68 in England and 18 in Scotland, bringing the total to 246.

London is one of the regions with the highest number of cases of Omicron which scientists expect to evade vaccines to some degree and to spread more quickly than the Delta variant which is currently dominant in the UK.

There were 1,069 coronavirus patients in the city’s hospitals, as of Friday, with 187 so ill that they are on ventilators.

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