The UK has confirmed its first death from the coronavirus variant Omicron, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.
Johnson did not provide further details about the incident and did not say whether the person had been vaccinated.
Speaking during a visit to a vaccination center in central London, Johnson said the Omicron variant “is currently spiked in London and some other parts of the country.”
“And sadly, there is Omicron being hospitalized and sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with Omicron.”
Variants currently account for about 40% of cases in London, according to Johnson, who said that “by tomorrow it will be the majority of cases.”
Mr Johnson said the UK would now need to “get up to speed” when it comes to deploying booster doses, stressing the need to “get at the speed and number of daily booster doses we need”. I’ve never seen it before.”
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