Gove: UK faces ‘deeply concerning situation’…..Omicron will be dominant variant by early next week, professor warns…….. People “very likely” to come in contact with Omicron holders, professor warns….

he UK’s top public health officials have advised ministers that “stringent national measures” need to be imposed by 18 December to avoid Covid hospitalisations surpassing last winter’s peak, according to reports. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, received a presentation from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) on Tuesday warning that even if the new Omicro variant leads to less serious disease than Delta, it risks overwhelming the NHS with 5,000 people admitted to hospital a day, the Guardian reported. It comes as Communities Secretary Michael Gove said Omicron already makes up 30 per cent of new Covid cases in London.Department of Health figures show London’s infection rate have risen in all 32 boroughs of London – with 11 seeing a leap of over a third in a week. Omicron could overtake Delta as the dominant Covid-19 variant as early as next week, an expert has warned. Professor Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director of the Scottish Government, told Sky News: “All four countries are managing this the way they think they should. It’s not any different. “There may be slight variations regionally around England but you’re pretty much where we are.” He said Omicron will be the dominant variant by the beginning of next week. “We’ve done this four times now… we’ve had four variants. Unfortunately two of them have come four weeks before Christmas. You couldn’t make this virus up, it’s like fiction.” Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease, said Omicron is spreading so fast that people are “very likely” to meet someone infected with the Covid-19 variant unless they are “living the life of a hermit”. The University of Edinburgh academic also warned “a lot of people” could still end up in hospital even if the coronavirus mutation proves to provoke milder symptoms than the Delta variant. Prof Riley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Omicron is spreading so quickly that, I think, unless you are living the life of a hermit, you are very likely to come across it in the next few weeks.“I don’t think anyone should be going around thinking they are not going to catch it, I think that situation has changed.” She added: “There is a huge ‘if’ about this, ‘is it milder?’. I think it is very dangerous to compare data from South Africa, say, to the UK.