It’s been well over a month since the Omicron variant has been circulating all over the world. The highly infectious new strain has prompted authorities in several countries to reconsider the introduction of stricter measures—including that of the UK.
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The British government has been mulling over the possibility of bringing back more COVID restrictions for some time now, but they have also been accused of unnecessarily spreading fear in the public.Mail Online reported that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was under the line of fire for not being transparent about the real impact of the Omicron variant.
Impact of Omicron in the UK
Last night, however, the organisation finally released new statistics about the strain and especially the effect it was having on the healthcare system.
According to their report, there have been 668 hospitalisations caused by the Omicron variant in the whole of England up until 26 December. Over all, theunvaccinated accounted for 26% of all hospitalisations. In London, however, the unvaccinated made up 40% of all admitted cases and UKHSA stated that:
London is currently the largest and most robust data set of the regions and reflects the importance of vaccine uptake.
Vaccinated in the hospital
While the unvaccinated do not make up for the majority of hospital admissions, it is important to note that most adults over the age of 18 are double-jabbed in the UK—this is why there are more vaccinated people in the hospital. Earlier data presented by the UKHSA showed that unvaccinated people are ‘up to eight times more likely’ to end up in the hospital than those that are double jabbed.
The report also revealed that so far 49 people have died from an Omicron infection. Details on whether they were unvaccinated, double-jabbed, or triple-jabbed have not been released. In addition, UKHSA has not yet divulged if the vaccinated patients in the hospital had gotten two or three doses.
