The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has declared a “major incident” due to the rapid spread of the Omicron covid variant in the capital.
In a twitter post on Saturday the mayor said: “Today I have declared a major incident in London because of the serious threat of Covid-19 to our city. This will help us avoid disruption to frontline services and to the life-saving booster vaccine rollout”
A major incident is any emergency which requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the emergency services, the NHS or the local authority. It means that the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee a normal level of response.
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Sky news reports: 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.”
