Yet anti-mask / anti-vaxx wankers are currently protesting.
As much as I hate the twat, Boris is now in an impossible situation, it’s clear further restrictions are now needed but if he brings them in before Christmas all hell will break loose.
So we lockdown for a month or two, everyone gets their boosters, 3-6 months go by & the vaccine loses potency/another variant comes along so we lockdown for a month or two, everyone gets their boosters, 3-6 months go by. . .
It’s endemic & we are going to have to learn to live with it eventually, we can’t stay living under restrictions forever it would be more damaging.
e: Maybe if the NHS hadn’t been defunded at record pace for the last decade by our current government it wouldn’t be at such a risk of getting overwhelmed – it’s been on its last legs every winter without COVID.
*its beginning to look a lot like Christmas… of 2020 ♫*
*While no new measures have been announced, he said: “In the last 24 hours, we have had the largest number of new cases since the pandemic began, more than 26,000.*
So… why declare it a major incident? I thought some additional measures will be introduced. What’s the point of doing that? Can someone explain? Does it put emergency services on stand by or something?
For those who dont like to click links all the time.
The mayor of London has declared a major incident in the capital over the “huge surge” of Omicron cases and an increase in hospital admissions.
Sadiq Khan said he has been meeting with colleagues from the NHS, councils and the fire service about the rise in infections of the COVID variant, with more than 10,000 new cases reported nationwide today.
While no new measures have been announced, he said: “In the last 24 hours, we have had the largest number of new cases since the pandemic began, more than 26,000.
“Hospital admissions are going up but also staff absences are going up by massive levels, so I have taken the decision, along with our partners, to declare a major incident.”
Follow the latest COVID updates in our live blog
What’s a ‘major incident’?
A major incident is declared when an event or situation with a range of serious consequences requires special arrangements to be enforced by one or more emergency response teams.
Those could be the police, ambulance service or fire brigade.
They have previously been called for such incidents as the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and the terror attack at Westminster Bridge in 2017.
Mr Khan said: “This is a statement of how serious things are, but also it means rather than different public authorities working separately we will be working together through both the London Resilience Forum and also through the strategic co-ordinating group.”
What ‘Plan C’ restrictions could we see if Plan B fails to curb the spread of Omicron?
London’s latest COVID figures
Latest figures showed there were 1,534 COVID patients in hospital across London on 17 December – a rise of 341, or 28.6%, compared with a week earlier when there were 1,193.
Across the UK, 7,611 people are in hospital with the virus, a rise of 163 patients (2%) on the previous week.
Those are all COVID cases – not just Omicron.
Mr Khan said Londoners will soon see more places offering COVID vaccines.
“It is really important Londoners understand how serious things are. The best thing Londoners can do is to get both vaccines and the booster, they provide extra layers of protection,” he said.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan4:44
Play Video – Khan: ‘I’m incredibly worried’
Khan: ‘I’m incredibly worried’
Omicron now London’s ‘dominant variant’
Earlier, Mr Khan spoke to reporters at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge football ground, which is being used as a vaccination centre this weekend, where he said he was “incredibly concerned” about the increase of Omicron cases.
He said Omicron is now the “dominant variant” in the city.
He also called on the government to provide financial support for businesses impacted by the spread of COVID-19 to avoid people losing their jobs or companies going bust.
He said over the last few weeks the impact of COVID on businesses has been “devastating” with theatres, live music events, and restaurants hit by an increase in cancellations.
“It is crucial – the government has got to provide a financial package of measures, grants, 100% business rates relief and more news in relation to furlough,” Mr Khan said.
“If the government doesn’t, you are going to see many businesses going bust and tens of thousands of people losing their jobs.”
Follow the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
It comes as almost 3,000 sites, including racecourses, football stadiums and Christmas markets, have been turned into vaccination centres this weekend.
This includes football grounds Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Wembley and three racecourses, Sandown Park, Bath, and Chelmsford.
Other venues open this weekend include the Christmas Market at Chester Cathedral, the Liverpool Christmas Ice Festival, Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and London’s Oxford Street where there will be a vaccine bus.
Everyone be very scared to go out, but you can still go out so no need to support businesses. They would have locked down by now if they could afford it, instead we have a sneak lockdown.
They said this would happen 6 months ago! Where is the plan? What the heck are they doing and what are they waiting for?
So.. Questions…
What is our long term plan. Because this is just destroying thr country.
We going to have find a way to live with this and reforce NHS to take the hits…
People are already growing increasing more apathetic and the percentage is not dropping.
Just went to a testing facility and was left feeling very impressed by the humanity and efficiency on show from the people staffing it.
We gotta give them more support.
No point in locking down now, with how busy everywhere has been recently the virus has already had opportunity to spread like wild fire. Too little, too late as usual.
‘Major Incident’is just emergency services/government speak for an incident that requires measures larger than a standard response to tackle.
A rise in cases was always going to be declared as such, as resources are moved from one region to another.
I’m so angry with the government at the moment and the whole handling of coronavirus. I did a PCR test on Wednesday and I’ve still not had the results. So now I’ve been isolating since Tuesday and I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to see my family for Christmas. When I called the NHS all they said was that I had to get another test and that they couldn’t help me any further, as there is a barcode on the test booklet that you have to keep, but with me being so sick I didn’t realise this, I kept the Royal mail tracking code but not the booklet. Unfortunately, our bins have been collected so I can’t even rifle through my bins. It just sucks, after the phone call I broke down in tears because I feel so lonely and there’s nothing I can do about it. It just adds insult to injury when I then see members of the government doing whatever they want. This is just a stupid and disjointed comment that’s going to get buried but I needed to express it somewhere.
It’s never gonna get better when people refuse to follow basic rules though. It’s shit, we all get that but if you start going against everything, how is supposed to get better?
COVID left me disabled and immunocompromised. The people whining the most can still go out and do things, especially if they’re vaxxed and use masks. I can rarely go out, I have all 3 vaccines but still can’t afford to take the risk. These people are helping to extend me being house bound alongside other people like myself.
Just get the vaccine, wear masks, follow basic hygiene and stop being a cunt and maybe, just maybe things will improve.
The vaccine is working, yes you can still catch COVID but the chance of you ending up hospitalised are so much lower and if you add wearing a mask, the chance of you catching it gets even lower.
Don’t cry about things getting strict again if you’re not gonna bother helping prevent the spread.
Queen’s speech should be fun.. ‘Well where does one fucking start’ would make a great opener..
Since Reddit is more level headed than YouTube – is Omicron actually just gonna cause herd immunity? And it’s not really that dangerous?
I can’t believe how many people can’t see what the problem is and how it effects absolutely everyone.
This isn’t about how lethal Omicron is, it all about how insanely infectious it is.
Let’s for arguement sakes say the number of people currently being admitted in Hospital remains static for the next two weeks.
What do you think will happen if all 50% of all NHS staff are off sick overnight?
Now let’s say the amount of calls the Fire Services attend to every day remains static but again 50% of staff are off sick.
Again with the Police Force.
By result the amount of people who will die will increase, whether it covid-19 related or not simply because there will not be enough staff to treat people.
The same will be said of people not being rescued by both the Fire and Police Service.
Remember we are talking of the numbers remain static which currently they are not, they are doing the opposite, they are increasing at an alarming rate.
So you have thousands more people needing medical treatment along with a crazy amount of staff being off sick at once.
Stop focusing on how lethal Omicron is and look at the bigger picture.
Significantly less Emergency Services staff means we are all effected, unless of course you invincible that is.
Now saying all of this, I am not advocating locking down simply because its far too late and it will not accomplish anything other then making a shit situation worse.
The rate Omicron is spreading is such that the only kind of lock down that would work is what China did at day 1.
Unfortunately I believe we are just going to accept that we are going to see significant number of deaths over the next month and ride this out.
My advice to everyone is just use common sense, do what is safe for you and your loved ones and please get your booster.
Apparently 40 fire crews, which equates to 40 operational fire engines were off the road due to covid/omicron last week – LAST WEEK!!!
What’s the score in Birmingham, Liverpool & Manchester right now??
I tested positive on Friday and I was the fifth person at my work to test positive since Monday. I work in retail and we are dropping like flies. At this rate we will not be able to keep places open solely due to the fact entire shops worth of staff are off sick.
To be honest at this point I’d suggest we just build more hospitals and beg foreign doctors and nurses to come and fill them.
Or build a little island for anti-vaxxers to live on and see how they get on.
As much as a dislike BoJo, I am glad he’s resisting another lockdown. Living with COVID can’t mean regular lockdowns, imho.
I was wondering why i have not caught the new variant than i realize i have no friends and i don’t go anywhere so yeah sometime bring lonely looser works yaaayy
The Victoria line was delayed the other day and Oxford Circus tube was literally like Ned flandereres shelterini. no unfamiliar humans should have been that close to each other at the best of times let alone in a pandemic. My pizza got smashed to shit. I’d like to know how 8 people max dwelling in the same vicinity is some kind of catastrophic Petri dish to end man kind yet being atomically smashed together on public transport at peak illness season every year is acceptable?
Major incident is the number of barely sentient apes whose brains broke and then decided to not vaccinate. Those people are the source of our troubles, not the virus. Human stupidity driven by social media echo chambers
24 comments
Yet anti-mask / anti-vaxx wankers are currently protesting.
As much as I hate the twat, Boris is now in an impossible situation, it’s clear further restrictions are now needed but if he brings them in before Christmas all hell will break loose.
So we lockdown for a month or two, everyone gets their boosters, 3-6 months go by & the vaccine loses potency/another variant comes along so we lockdown for a month or two, everyone gets their boosters, 3-6 months go by. . .
It’s endemic & we are going to have to learn to live with it eventually, we can’t stay living under restrictions forever it would be more damaging.
e: Maybe if the NHS hadn’t been defunded at record pace for the last decade by our current government it wouldn’t be at such a risk of getting overwhelmed – it’s been on its last legs every winter without COVID.
*its beginning to look a lot like Christmas… of 2020 ♫*
*While no new measures have been announced, he said: “In the last 24 hours, we have had the largest number of new cases since the pandemic began, more than 26,000.*
So… why declare it a major incident? I thought some additional measures will be introduced. What’s the point of doing that? Can someone explain? Does it put emergency services on stand by or something?
For those who dont like to click links all the time.
The mayor of London has declared a major incident in the capital over the “huge surge” of Omicron cases and an increase in hospital admissions.
Sadiq Khan said he has been meeting with colleagues from the NHS, councils and the fire service about the rise in infections of the COVID variant, with more than 10,000 new cases reported nationwide today.
While no new measures have been announced, he said: “In the last 24 hours, we have had the largest number of new cases since the pandemic began, more than 26,000.
“Hospital admissions are going up but also staff absences are going up by massive levels, so I have taken the decision, along with our partners, to declare a major incident.”
Follow the latest COVID updates in our live blog
What’s a ‘major incident’?
A major incident is declared when an event or situation with a range of serious consequences requires special arrangements to be enforced by one or more emergency response teams.
Those could be the police, ambulance service or fire brigade.
They have previously been called for such incidents as the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and the terror attack at Westminster Bridge in 2017.
Mr Khan said: “This is a statement of how serious things are, but also it means rather than different public authorities working separately we will be working together through both the London Resilience Forum and also through the strategic co-ordinating group.”
What ‘Plan C’ restrictions could we see if Plan B fails to curb the spread of Omicron?
London’s latest COVID figures
Latest figures showed there were 1,534 COVID patients in hospital across London on 17 December – a rise of 341, or 28.6%, compared with a week earlier when there were 1,193.
Across the UK, 7,611 people are in hospital with the virus, a rise of 163 patients (2%) on the previous week.
Those are all COVID cases – not just Omicron.
Mr Khan said Londoners will soon see more places offering COVID vaccines.
“It is really important Londoners understand how serious things are. The best thing Londoners can do is to get both vaccines and the booster, they provide extra layers of protection,” he said.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan4:44
Play Video – Khan: ‘I’m incredibly worried’
Khan: ‘I’m incredibly worried’
Omicron now London’s ‘dominant variant’
Earlier, Mr Khan spoke to reporters at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge football ground, which is being used as a vaccination centre this weekend, where he said he was “incredibly concerned” about the increase of Omicron cases.
He said Omicron is now the “dominant variant” in the city.
He also called on the government to provide financial support for businesses impacted by the spread of COVID-19 to avoid people losing their jobs or companies going bust.
He said over the last few weeks the impact of COVID on businesses has been “devastating” with theatres, live music events, and restaurants hit by an increase in cancellations.
“It is crucial – the government has got to provide a financial package of measures, grants, 100% business rates relief and more news in relation to furlough,” Mr Khan said.
“If the government doesn’t, you are going to see many businesses going bust and tens of thousands of people losing their jobs.”
Follow the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
It comes as almost 3,000 sites, including racecourses, football stadiums and Christmas markets, have been turned into vaccination centres this weekend.
This includes football grounds Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Wembley and three racecourses, Sandown Park, Bath, and Chelmsford.
Other venues open this weekend include the Christmas Market at Chester Cathedral, the Liverpool Christmas Ice Festival, Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and London’s Oxford Street where there will be a vaccine bus.
Everyone be very scared to go out, but you can still go out so no need to support businesses. They would have locked down by now if they could afford it, instead we have a sneak lockdown.
They said this would happen 6 months ago! Where is the plan? What the heck are they doing and what are they waiting for?
So.. Questions…
What is our long term plan. Because this is just destroying thr country.
We going to have find a way to live with this and reforce NHS to take the hits…
People are already growing increasing more apathetic and the percentage is not dropping.
Just went to a testing facility and was left feeling very impressed by the humanity and efficiency on show from the people staffing it.
We gotta give them more support.
No point in locking down now, with how busy everywhere has been recently the virus has already had opportunity to spread like wild fire. Too little, too late as usual.
‘Major Incident’is just emergency services/government speak for an incident that requires measures larger than a standard response to tackle.
A rise in cases was always going to be declared as such, as resources are moved from one region to another.
I’m so angry with the government at the moment and the whole handling of coronavirus. I did a PCR test on Wednesday and I’ve still not had the results. So now I’ve been isolating since Tuesday and I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to see my family for Christmas. When I called the NHS all they said was that I had to get another test and that they couldn’t help me any further, as there is a barcode on the test booklet that you have to keep, but with me being so sick I didn’t realise this, I kept the Royal mail tracking code but not the booklet. Unfortunately, our bins have been collected so I can’t even rifle through my bins. It just sucks, after the phone call I broke down in tears because I feel so lonely and there’s nothing I can do about it. It just adds insult to injury when I then see members of the government doing whatever they want. This is just a stupid and disjointed comment that’s going to get buried but I needed to express it somewhere.
It’s never gonna get better when people refuse to follow basic rules though. It’s shit, we all get that but if you start going against everything, how is supposed to get better?
COVID left me disabled and immunocompromised. The people whining the most can still go out and do things, especially if they’re vaxxed and use masks. I can rarely go out, I have all 3 vaccines but still can’t afford to take the risk. These people are helping to extend me being house bound alongside other people like myself.
Just get the vaccine, wear masks, follow basic hygiene and stop being a cunt and maybe, just maybe things will improve.
The vaccine is working, yes you can still catch COVID but the chance of you ending up hospitalised are so much lower and if you add wearing a mask, the chance of you catching it gets even lower.
Don’t cry about things getting strict again if you’re not gonna bother helping prevent the spread.
Queen’s speech should be fun.. ‘Well where does one fucking start’ would make a great opener..
Since Reddit is more level headed than YouTube – is Omicron actually just gonna cause herd immunity? And it’s not really that dangerous?
I can’t believe how many people can’t see what the problem is and how it effects absolutely everyone.
This isn’t about how lethal Omicron is, it all about how insanely infectious it is.
Let’s for arguement sakes say the number of people currently being admitted in Hospital remains static for the next two weeks.
What do you think will happen if all 50% of all NHS staff are off sick overnight?
Now let’s say the amount of calls the Fire Services attend to every day remains static but again 50% of staff are off sick.
Again with the Police Force.
By result the amount of people who will die will increase, whether it covid-19 related or not simply because there will not be enough staff to treat people.
The same will be said of people not being rescued by both the Fire and Police Service.
Remember we are talking of the numbers remain static which currently they are not, they are doing the opposite, they are increasing at an alarming rate.
So you have thousands more people needing medical treatment along with a crazy amount of staff being off sick at once.
Stop focusing on how lethal Omicron is and look at the bigger picture.
Significantly less Emergency Services staff means we are all effected, unless of course you invincible that is.
Now saying all of this, I am not advocating locking down simply because its far too late and it will not accomplish anything other then making a shit situation worse.
The rate Omicron is spreading is such that the only kind of lock down that would work is what China did at day 1.
Unfortunately I believe we are just going to accept that we are going to see significant number of deaths over the next month and ride this out.
My advice to everyone is just use common sense, do what is safe for you and your loved ones and please get your booster.
Apparently 40 fire crews, which equates to 40 operational fire engines were off the road due to covid/omicron last week – LAST WEEK!!!
What’s the score in Birmingham, Liverpool & Manchester right now??
I tested positive on Friday and I was the fifth person at my work to test positive since Monday. I work in retail and we are dropping like flies. At this rate we will not be able to keep places open solely due to the fact entire shops worth of staff are off sick.
To be honest at this point I’d suggest we just build more hospitals and beg foreign doctors and nurses to come and fill them.
Or build a little island for anti-vaxxers to live on and see how they get on.
As much as a dislike BoJo, I am glad he’s resisting another lockdown. Living with COVID can’t mean regular lockdowns, imho.
I was wondering why i have not caught the new variant than i realize i have no friends and i don’t go anywhere so yeah sometime bring lonely looser works yaaayy
The Victoria line was delayed the other day and Oxford Circus tube was literally like Ned flandereres shelterini. no unfamiliar humans should have been that close to each other at the best of times let alone in a pandemic. My pizza got smashed to shit. I’d like to know how 8 people max dwelling in the same vicinity is some kind of catastrophic Petri dish to end man kind yet being atomically smashed together on public transport at peak illness season every year is acceptable?
Major incident is the number of barely sentient apes whose brains broke and then decided to not vaccinate. Those people are the source of our troubles, not the virus. Human stupidity driven by social media echo chambers