London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2025

Covid alert raised to level 4 in UK as Omicron cases surge

Covid alert raised to level 4 in UK as Omicron cases surge

Decision signals high pressure on NHS as concerns grow that vaccines are less effective against fast-spreading variant

The UK’s Covid alert level has been raised, indicating substantial pressure on the NHS, amid concerns over the rapid increase in Omicron cases and a warning that the health service is “on its knees”.

The decision to move from level 3 to 4 was taken on Sunday on the recommendation of the UK chief medical officers and NHS England’s national medical director.

They said: “The emergence of Omicron adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and healthcare services. Early evidence shows that Omicron is spreading much faster than Delta and that vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from Omicron is reduced.”

Level 4 is defined by the government as “a Covid-19 epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high and direct Covid-19 pressure on healthcare services is widespread and substantial or rising”. The alert level was moved down from level 4 to level 3 in May.


However, the emergence of the Omicron variant has set alarm bells ringing, with the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) warning that even if the new variant causes less serious disease than Delta, it could lead to 5,000 people admitted to hospital a day, while the epidemiologist Prof Neil Ferguson said the total could be double that number.

The chief medical officers referred to the fact that the NHS is already under pressure even before the full impact of Omicron has been felt, a point that was made in starker terms by other senior health figures on Sunday.

Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) from University College London, told LBC: “We’re talking about a hospital system that is already pretty much on its knees with the current level of activity, and that level of activity is going to go up dramatically and much worse than a normal winter. So you know, there is going to be a big problem.”

Hospitals are expecting NHS England to declare a national incident within days, meaning decision-making will be more centralised. It will probably lead to routine operations being cancelled once more, adding to a waiting list that is already almost 6 million long, and staff repurposed. A senior NHS source said GPs would be told to massively ramp up boosters over the next two weeks, prioritising them over non-urgent appointments and reducing the number of face-to-face interactions outside administering vaccine doses.

Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, said the health service was already “experiencing significantly higher pressure than we have ever seen before at this time of year”.

He said he was “struck by how many long-serving [hospital] CEOs are saying that this is clearly and incontrovertibly the highest and longest sustained period of pressure they have seen in their careers. They are also worried that this is occurring before the traditional January winter peak and at a time when they don’t yet know what extra Covid caseload will come from Omicron. And there seems to be a good chance that an Omicron peak may fall in exactly the same early- to mid-January time period.”

He said it was a mistake to just look at the Covid caseload for hospitals and wrong to compare the current situation, which had seen “pressure for months on end”, with January 2020 which he said was challenging but saw a peak which came and went relatively quickly.

Hopson pointed to the latest NHS statistics, saying they showed it was the second busiest ever November for A&E attendances and bed occupancy rates, with 11% occupied by patients medically fit to be discharged but delayed by insufficient social care capacity. He said this had partly been driven by a reduction in workforce which the NHS was also experiencing, losing staff to the retail, hospitality and logistics sectors which were paying sign-on bonuses and higher wages, or to early retirement or staff moving overseas.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×