UK Covid live: more than 178,000 cases reported amid 229 further deaths

A total of 18,454 people were in hospital in the UK with Covid-19 as of 6 January, PA Media reports. PA says:

This is up 40% week on week and is the highest number since 18 February 2021.

During the second wave of coronavirus, the number peaked at 39,254 on 18 January 2021.

There were 2,434 Covid-19 hospital admissions on 3 January, the latest UK-wide figure available, up 26% week-on-week and slightly below the 2,590 admissions on 29 December.

Admissions during the second wave peaked at 4,583 on 12 January 2021.

Keir Starmer has issued this tribute to Jack Dromey.

The proud son of Irish parents, Jack Dromey dedicated his life to standing up for working people through the Labour movement, becoming deputy general secretary of the UK’s largest trade union and then a Labour MP.

From supporting the strike at the Grunwick film processing laboratory, when he met Harriet, through to being elected to represent Birmingham Erdington in 2010, Jack lived his commitment to social justice every day.

Jack was recognised for his determination to stand up for his constituents and he was highly respected and warmly regarded across parliament.

My thoughts and those of the whole Labour movement are with Harriet, their children and all those who knew and loved Jack.

The Mark Drakeford press conference went on for more than an hour. Here are some of the other lines, following his warning at the start that Omicron cases may not peak in Wales for another fortnight. (See 12.34pm.)

• Drakeford, the Labour Welsh first minister, claimed that England was a “global outlier” in its handling of Covid policy. Referring to the UK government (which, for Covid health policy, is effectively the English government), he said it was out of step with other countries around the world. Asked why Wales was applying restrictions not in force in England, he replied:

I would put the question in exactly the opposite way. The outlier here is not Wales. Wales is taking action, as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland, and as are countries right across Europe and right across the globe. The one country that stands out as not taking action to protect its population is England.

So the question is not why is Wales not following what is going on in England. The real question is why is England such a global outlier in the way in which governments elsewhere are attempting to protect their populations from coronavirus.

Drakeford then proceeded to answer his own question. He said in England the government was “politically paralysed with a prime minister unable to secure an agreement through his cabinet to take the actions that his advisers have been telling him ought to have been taken”.

Asked later in the press conference to justify calling England an outlier, Drakeford said other governments were imposing restrictions on gatherings, going beyond the rules in place in Wales. He went on:

Right across the world governments have been taking action, not to simply deal with the consequences of an Omicron wave, but to try to mitigate that wave and to protect their populations against it. The prime minister has chosen – in my view, because he has no viable alternative available to him – to ride it out, as he says, and that really does make that government an outlier.

Asked what evidence he had to show Wales had got it right, and England wrong, Drakeford said that the Sage advice was available to everyone and it showed action was necessary.

• Drakeford said he expected current restrictions in Wales to remain in place for at least a fortnight.

• He insisted Parkrun events were not banned in Wales. Parkrun has cancelled its runs in Wales, prompting Sajid Javid, the health secretary for England, to criticise the Welsh government restrictions that led to this. But, when asked about this, Drakeford said Parkrun runs were not banned. Up to 50 people could take part in a run under the rules, he said, and another 50 people could help with the organisation.

• He said no decision had yet been taken about whether the Six Nations rugby matches that Wales is meant to be hosting in February and March will be able to go ahead in the country. Currently large sporting events of that kind are banned in Wales. He said:

It’s always been the case that the risks in major events are less at the event itself, particularly when those events are well run, as certainly the autumn internationals were. It is how people travel to the stadium, it is how people gather around the stadium, it is how people behave – not at the game but around the game. So there are further measures that could be adopted that would help to mitigate those risks.

Of course, we would all far prefer to be in a position where the Six Nations could go ahead with people watching the game here in Wales. That is not a matter of dispute between any party. The issue that is under the microscope is whether we can do that safely.

Drakeford also said he had no problem with the decision of the Welsh RFU to explore hosting the matches outside of the country.

• He said the latest figures showed more than 2,300 Covid cases per 100,000 people across Wales and that cases were highest among 20 to 40-year-olds.

• He said 994 people were being treated with coronavirus in Welsh hospitals – a rise of 43% compared with last week and the highest number since last March.

• He said the latest figures suggested staff absences from illness and isolation across the NHS were 8.3% in Wales, as high as 16.5% in some NHS organisations.

© Provided by The Guardian
Mark Drakeford. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

A report in the Times (paywall) says that Sajid Javid, the health secretary, strongly opposed the government decision to abandon pre-departure tests for people flying into the UK, and compulsory PCR tests two days after arrival. In his story Steven Swinford says:

The Times can disclose that Javid, the health secretary, strongly opposed the move, telling the Covid-O committee of senior ministers that removing the requirement for PCR tests would limit the government’s ability to detect future mutant strains.

He argued that it increased the risk that a more deadly and transmissible strain of coronavirus could circulate in the UK undetected.

A government source said: “Sajid was very unhappy about the decision to remove the requirement for PCR tests. He argued they are instrumental in spotting new variants sooner. He said that by scrapping them you increase the risk of having to shut down the entire economy. But he lost the argument.”

Javid did not really deny the story when he was asked about it on a visit to a hospital today. Asked if the report was true, he replied:

I want to see travel open up. I want to see it be made as easy as it possibly can be. And it should always be a balanced and proportionate approach.

I think that the approach that we’ve taken, where we require people still upon their return to take a lateral flow test, and if they are positive to take a confirmatory PCR test, I think this the right balanced and proportionate approach.

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Sajid Javid visiting to Kings College hospital today. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Council workers in North Yorkshire are being asked to volunteer for social care roles to cover for staff absent as a result of Omicron, PA Media reports. PA says:

North Yorkshire county council is asking staff in “non-critical services” such as highways, planning, and other office roles to help keep vulnerable people safe.

Volunteers will be asked to cook, clean, and help older people to eat, as well as assist them to speak to relatives on the phone or online.

The council said training will be given and it will match new duties with workers’ normal working patterns.

Richard Flinton, chair of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, said: “These emergency plans will only be used if needed but will hopefully provide sufficient volunteers to get us through the Omicron wave, which may see as much as a 40% reduction in available care staff due to illness or self-isolation.

“Staff would be deployed in such circumstances on a range of different duties supporting care delivery in our elderly persons’ homes and extra care settings to free up care colleagues to deliver direct care.”

The UK has recorded 178,250 new coronavirus cases, and 229 more deaths, according to the daily update to the government’s Covid dashboard.

The total number of new cases over the past week is still up on the total for the previous week, by 19.8%. But yesterday the equivalent figure was up 29.3%, and for the third day in a row now the figure for reported cases has gone down. That explains the tiny kink downwards in the graph, which could be early evidence of cases starting to plateau.

© Provided by The Guardian
Covid dashboard. Photograph: Gov.UK

The Labour MP Jack Dromey died suddenly today in his flat in his Birmingham Erdington constituency, his family has announced. He was 73.

Dromey was married to Harriet Harman, the party’s former deputy leader, and was shadow immigration minister. Before he became an MP in 2010 he was deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union.

In their statement Dromey’s family said:

Jack Dromey MP died suddenly this morning aged 73 in his flat in Erdington.

He had been a dedicated Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington since 2010.

He was a much loved husband, father and grandfather, and he will be greatly missed.

Opposition leaders have called for far more detailed data on the number of Scottish hospital patients with Omicron after criticising the size of a small sample involving two health boards published today by Public Health Scotland. (See 12.56pm.)

Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said the PHS data covering only 126 Covid-positive patients in Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) hospitals, taken over periods lasting six days and two days respectively, was inadequate. He said:

Opposition parties have been calling for clearer data on the impact of Omicron on hospital admissions for weeks. An analysis of two health boards doesn’t really satisfy that request. Furthermore, we know that Delta still accounts for 10% of Covid infections in Scotland, but there is no breakdown on acute admissions by variant type. That information is crucial to understanding the impact of Omicron on our lives.

The first minister promised parliament that Friday would be the day we learned how many people were in hospital because of Omicron severity, but the data published today doesn’t answer that question.

Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said:

The publication of this data is welcome as it allows us to understand how the Omicron variant is affecting the people of Scotland and the NHS. But the data remains incomplete for the whole of Scotland and only a wider study will provide the conclusive findings that we need.

The UK Health Security Agency has published new figures for R, the reproduction number, and for the growth rate for coronavirus in England. These are the first estimates since 23 December.

The growth rate is now estimated to be between +3% and +6%. That means new infections growing at a rate of between 3% and 6% per day. The previous estimate was between 0 and +3%.

And R is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.5. That means every 10 people will infect between 12 and 15 people. The previous estimate was between 1 and 1.2.

But although these figures have just been published, because of the time it takes to assess how the virus is spreading by these measures, these figures are a guide to what was happening with transmission two or three weeks ago, UKHSA says.

A total of 231,856 booster and third doses of Covid-19 vaccine were reported across the UK on Thursday, PA Media reports. More than 35 million booster and third doses have now been delivered in the UK, with just over one million in the past seven days. Nearly 66% of all adults in the UK have now received a booster or third dose.

The latest Scottish data continue to suggest the steep surge in Omicron-variant Covid cases has begun to level off, after the NHS reported 14,486 new cases and a test positivity rate of 21.7%.

After a sharp rise in patients hospitalised with Covid over the Christmas and New Year holidays, when Covid-positive patient numbers doubled in a week, the numbers admitted each day has markedly reduced.

There were 1,323 Covid-positive patients in Scottish hospitals today, a rise of 56 on yesterday. There are now 61 people now in intensive care with Covid, compared to 51 a week ago. The test positivity rate hit 35% earlier this month.

A separate study released by Public Health Scotland on Friday shows only 1% of Covid-positive people are being hospitalised, compared to 12% in January 2021.

Friday’s data bulletin also said the deaths of 15 more Covid-positive people in Scotland had been registered, taking the total under that measure to 9,905. However more than 3m Scots have now had their third or booster vaccination.

A system-wide major incident has been declared in Northamptonshire by health, public and emergency service leaders because of the impact of coronavirus in the county, PA Media reports. The Northamptonshire Local Resilience Forum, which is made up of NHS organisations, local authorities, Northamptonshire fire and rescue service and Northamptonshire police, issued the alert due to “rising demand on services and staffing levels”. Chair of the forum, chief fire officer Darren Dovey, said:

There is already exceptional working together between partners to help the county face up to this challenge. Declaring this incident is a necessary step to make sure we are able to share resources where necessary which is increasingly important as more staff need to self-isolate.

Yesterday Staffordshire also declared a major incident, for the same reason.

The North West ambulance service has announced that around 150 military personnel will start supporting it from next week as it deals with pressures caused by the Omicron surge. NWAS director of operations Ged Blezard said:

It is no secret that the ambulance service, along with the NHS as a whole, has been under extreme pressure for several months.

Now we are also experiencing high numbers of staff absences due to confirmed Covid-19 cases and isolation, with around 25% of the workforce currently affected.

We worked alongside the military last February and March, and it allows us to have more of our vehicles on the road, getting people the treatment they need sooner. This frees up emergency ambulances to attend to urgent, life-threatening cases.

Suella Braverman, the attorney general, has announced that she is considering referring the “Colston four” case to the court of appeal. She says this would not overturn the verdict, but that some legal matters may need to be clarified.

Emily Thornberry, Braverman’s Labour shadow, has accused her of playing “political games” and undermining the sanctity of the jury system.

The Barnard Castle point is a reference to Braverman posting a tweet in defence of Dominic Cummings after his lockdown-busting excursion last year. This was widely criticised because her status as a government law officer meant that the tweet could be seen as putting undue pressure on the police, who at the time were having to make a judgment about whether an offence had been committed.

My colleague Haroon Siddique has more on Braverman’s latest intervention here.

Related: Attorney general ‘considering’ referring Colston statue case to appeal court

Jamie Jenkins, a former ONS statistician, has posted a graph on Twitter showing how the proportion of Covid patients in hospital in England primarily being treated for something else has been rising. (See 11.56am.)

The Office for National Statistics has published its latest coronavirus infection survey bulletin. It is now publishing early headline results on Wednesdays, and the main figures out today, for the week ending Friday 31 December, are the same as those on Wednesday. The ONS says infections were increasing in all parts of the UK that week. The figures were:

England: around 1 in 15 people had coronavirus

Wales: around 1 in 20 people had coronavirus

Northern Ireland: around 1 in 25 people had coronavirus

Scotland: around 1 in 20 people had coronavirus

But today’s report has more detail. It includes this chart, showing the trend in the English regions.

© Provided by The Guardian
Covid cases in English regions. Photograph: ONS

And this chart shows Covid rates in England by age.

© Provided by The Guardian
Covid rates in England by age. Photograph: ONS

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the No 10 spokesperson confirmed that the proposal to the PM from David Brownlow, the Tory donor who initially funded the Downing Street flat refurbishment, for a “Great Exhibition” was passed on to the culture department by No 10. The spokesman said:

As is quite usual, when any suggestions such as this are put forward, it is right that it is passed on to the relevant department to take forward.

And as you’re aware, Oliver Dowden [the then-culture secretary] met with Lord Brownlow at the Royal Albert Hall on the joint proposal and you’ll have seen that was declared in the regular DCMS transparency returns.

As I say, it is normal practice that when an idea or proposal is put to the Prime Minister, it is referred to the relevant departments to take forward, and in this case the decision was taken not to take this any further.

Labour claims that this amounts to “cash for access” corruption.

Asked why the Great Exhibition proposal was dropped, the spokesperson said:

We’ve taken forward the idea of Festival UK and Unboxed 2022, which you can see all the details off on the website and is available for everybody to see. We went with that, which we confirmed in 2018 and was set out in the manifesto in 2019.

New data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) suggests at least 40% of Covid-positive patients in Scottish hospitals were admitted for another medical reason, and that in some areas, the proportion could be higher.

After mounting calls from opposition parties for proper data, PHS said sampling in Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) had confirmed the proportion of Covid cases in hospitals with clinically-significant Covid infections is now lower than it was when the Delta variant was dominant last year.

The NHS GGC sampling, carried out over two days earlier this month, found 43% of patients with confirmed Covid were not hospitalised because of the virus. Based on six days sampling by NHS Grampian, which includes Aberdeen, it was 40%.

Public Health Scotland said this data was very useful in helping decide whether to relax or tighten Covid controls; opposition parties have questioned whether the strict controls introduced for Scotland by Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, were unnecessarily onerous. The agency said:

Knowing this information can help signal whether population-level changes in public health measures may be warranted, such as a tightening or easing of restrictions. It can also help us to predict whether we are likely to see future pressures on hospital systems based on recent patterns of infections in the surrounding community.

Those data compare to much more detailed figures released for NHS England showing 37% of Covid-positive patients were admitted on Tuesday 4 January for another reason. (See 11.56am.) In August last year – when the harsher Delta variant was dominant, PHS data showed 32% of patients with Covid were admitted for another medical reason.

The PHS figures also show the elderly made up a far greater proportion of those hospitalised because of the virus, suggested younger adults were not ill due to Covid. People aged 65 or over made up 42% of all admissions because of Covid-19, and just 26% of those with it.

The agency added that as of 5 January, 91.1% of all Scotland’s Covid cases were now Omicron, some six weeks after it first emerged in Scotland.

Downing Street has insisted that there is no need for further Covid restrictions in England, despite military personnel being drafted in to help out in hospitals in London. (See 9.15am.) The No 10 spokesman told journalists at the daily lobby briefing:

The prime minister has been clear on controls. Plan B is balanced and proportionate to respond to the Omicron variant. It is continuing to help reduce its spread. But the important thing is the booster programme and the effectiveness it has in stopping the disease.

The military have helped out throughout the pandemic and they will do so again. We know that staff absences are contributing to the pressure the NHS is currently facing. Of course we will continue to take appropriate measures to ensure the NHS has the support they need.

When it was put to the spokesman that the need to call in the army suggested the NHS was at risk of being overwhelmed, which should be the trigger for a move to Covid alert level 5, the spokesman said that decisions about changing Covid alert levels were a matter for the chief medical officer for England (Prof Chris Whitty) and his Scottish, Welsh and and Northern Irish counterparts.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, is holding a Covid briefing now. There is a live feed here.

In his opening remarks Drakeford said that Covid cases in Wales were much higher than in previous waves and that the peak of the Omicron wave could be up to two weeks away. He said:

Omicron is now the dominant form of the virus in Wales and cases are rising rapidly every day … Cases are far higher now than they were at the peak of the previous waves.

Unlike previous waves, which have lasted many months, we believe this one will be short-lived. This is because of the speed Omicron is moving at. We haven’t reached the peak of this wave yet. This could be another 10 to 14 days away.

Drakeford also confirmed that the Welsh government was making no changes to the current restrictions in place.

NHS England has this morning published its latest “primary diagnosis” supplement. This is a dataset that shows how many of the daily Covid hospital cases are patients being treated in hospital for Covid, and how many are patients with Covid being treated primary for something else.

The hospital figures that are published daily do not make this distinction

The latest figure is for Tuesday 4 January and it shows that in England 13,045 patients were in hospital with Covid on that day, but only 8,200 for Covid. That means only 63% of Covid cases were in hospital primary because of Covid.

This figures has been drifting down. The equivalent figure for the previous Tuesday, when total Covid cases were 8,321, was 67%, and the Tuesday before that, when overall cases were 6,245, 71% of them were people being treated primary for Covid. At the start of December the figure was 74%.

As PA Media reports, the number of patients being treated primarily for Covid rose from 5,578 on 28 December to 8,200 a week later (a jump of 47%), while those with Covid but being treated primarily for something else rose from 2,743 to 4,845 (a jump of 77%).

The figures cover acute hospital admissions only.

This morning Paul Scully, the minister for London, said the Covid trend in London was “encouraging”. (See 9.56am.) But, as the BBC’s Robert Cuffe points out in a helpful Twitter thread, they are rising everywhere else – and even in London the picture is not straightforward. The thread starts here.

Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, has said that Labour is asking the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, to investigate the text messages between Boris Johnson and Lord Brownlow, the Tory donor who initially funded his flat refurbishment. Reed said the WhatsApp message from Johnson to Brownlow that included both a request for help with the refurbishment costs and an assurance that Brownlow’s plans for a “Great Exhibition” were been looked at suggested a “cash for access” arrangement.

Reed told the Today programme:

What we’re seeing here is a case of, potentially, cash for access where Lord Brownlow was given access to ministers to try and influence them over decisions of spending taxpayers’ money – that is why this matters so immensely.

Those very cosy text messages show there was a quid pro quo in operation between the prime minister and Lord Brownlow, and we need to get to the absolute bottom of this.

Paul Scully, the business minister, dismissed claims the message was inappropriate, stressing that the “Great Exhibition” is not going ahead anyway. (See 10.44am.) But Reed said that was irrelevant. He told Today:

The issue is not whether it happened, it is whether rich people can pay to get access to government ministers to try and influence them over how they decide to spend taxpayers’ money.

Travel companies say demand for foreign holidays is returning to pre-pandemic levels following the government’s decision to relax travel rules.

As PA Media reports, Steve Heapy, chief executive of tour operator Jet2holidays and leisure airline Jet2.com, said:

We have seen an immediate and dramatic spike in bookings, with volumes since the government announcement heading towards pre-pandemic levels, which demonstrates just how much demand is out there among people wanting to get away for a much-needed holiday.

A spokeswoman for the tour operator Tui said:

We’ve already seen an immediate and strong uptick in bookings and we now expect summer 2022 bookings to be normalised.

January is traditionally the busiest month for holiday bookings and demand is yet to reach pre-Covid levels, so we need to see sustained confidence in travel so the industry can fully recover.

And Derek Jones, chief executive of luxury travel company Kuoni, said:

I predict travel will be 90% back to 2019 levels before the end of spring. We’re already seeing increased call volumes and inquiries about trips for the year ahead as confidence builds.

On Wednesday the UK government announced that pre-departure tests for people coming to England from abroad were being abandoned. As the Scottish government said yesterday, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also adopting the same rules.

There was “nothing untoward” in the prime minister discussing a proposed “great exhibition” with a Conservative donor who was helping to fund his Downing Street flat refurbishment, Paul Scully, the business minister, said this morning. My colleague Jamie Grierson has the story here.

Related: ‘Nothing untoward’ in Johnson’s ‘great exhibition’ texts, says minister

Today’s figures from NHS England also show that on average there are almost 10,000 patients in hospital each day who no longer needed to stay in hospital but who were not being discharged. On average, only 42% of patients meeting the discharge criteria were being discharged per day in the week ending 2 January, NHS England says.

The problem is caused largely by the lack of places available in social care.

NHS England says this is a particular problem for long-stay patients (who have been in hospital for at least three weeks). It says that last week on average there were 4,495 long-stay patients in hospital every day who no longer needed to stay, but on average only 440 of them were actually discharged per day.

Covid-related staff absences at hospital trusts in England have risen by 59% in a week, according to figures released by NHS England this morning.

As PA Media reports, a total of 39,142 NHS staff at hospital trusts in England were absent for Covid reasons on 2 January, up 59% on the previous week (24,632) and more than three times the number at the start of December (12,508), according to the figures. PA says:

The total includes staff who were ill with coronavirus or who were having to self-isolate.

In north-west England, 7,338 NHS staff at hospital trusts were absent due to Covid on January 2, up 85% week-on-week from 3,966, while in north-east England and Yorkshire there were 8,788 absences, more than double the number a week earlier (4,179).

In London absences were up 4% week-on-week, from 4,580 to 4,765.

Taking into account non-Covid absences, there were 82,384 NHS staff at hospital trusts in England who were absent for all sickness reasons (including isolation) on 2 January, up 21% on the previous week (68,082) and up 37% from the start of December (60,136).

Commenting on the figures, Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said:

Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them. In fact, around 10,000 more colleagues across the NHS were absent each day last week compared with the previous seven days and almost half of all absences are now down to Covid.

While we don’t know the full scale of the potential impact this new strain will have, it’s clear it spreads more easily and, as a result, Covid cases in hospitals are the highest they’ve been since February last year – piling even more pressure on hard working staff.

Paul Scully, who is minister for London as well as a business minister, told LBC this morning that he thought the situation in the capital was “encouraging”. Asked if Omicron was easing there, he replied:

I think it is looking encouraging, the trend at the moment, but clearly we need to be on our guard because there is still pressure on the NHS in London.

It is not just about the case numbers – there is a clear disconnect between case numbers and hospitalisations – but you’ve also then, because of the increased testing and the increased awareness by people, you’ve got bigger absences as well, and that’s obviously putting extra pressure on the NHS and other public services.

This chart, from the government’s UK Covid dashboard, shows how case rates in London are starting to fall.

© Provided by The Guardian
7-day case rates in London Photograph: Gov.UK

And Covid hospital admissions in London seem to be falling too.

© Provided by The Guardian
Covid hospital admission figures for London Photograph: Gov.UK

Good morning. As we report in an overnight story, around 200 military personnel are being deployed in London hospitals to help them deal with the consequences of the Omicron surge.

Related: Military deployed at London hospitals due to Omicron staff shortages

Air Commodore John Lyle, the officer in charge of the deployment, has been giving interviews this morning and he told BBC Breakfast that similar interventions may take place in other regions in the country. Asked about the likelihood of this, he said

We can’t really forecast too far ahead, but certainly, throughout this current surge, we know that it’s particularly difficult in London at the minute but we are aware that this is impacting all across the United Kingdom. And so we remain in discussions and there are a number of areas where we’re looking at the potential for more assistance.

So, over the coming weeks or months, I think we’ll learn a lot from how the progress is made through London and potentially there could be further military support required in other areas.

Lyle also pointed out that the armed forces have already deployed about 1,800 personnel across the UK to help with the Covid response, mostly with the booster programme, but also helping the ambulance service.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The ONS publishes new data on the social impacts of Covid.

9.30am: NHS England is due to publish its situation report for hospitals.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12pm: The ONS publishes its latest Covid infection survey.

12.15pm: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a Covid briefing.

Lunchtime: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is visiting a London hospital.

I will covering UK Covid developments in this blog today, but for wider coronavirus coverage, do read our global live blog.

Related: Covid live news: NHS ‘in very difficult circumstances’ as London hospitals call in military; India’s cases jump five-fold

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Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of the British Medical Association, told Sky News this morning that he had never known a time when the NHS was having to deal with so many staff absences. He said:

Every winter of course, the NHS has additional pressures, but I don’t think anyone who’s worked in the NHS has experienced this level of absence of their colleagues and we’re feeling it in very real time because doctors and nurses and healthcare workers are having to cover for their absent colleagues – that’s adding additional, exceptional strain.

Asked how close the NHS was to being overwhelmed, he replied:

I think that the words like overwhelmed, I mean, I think we should just look at the reality.

The reality of the army having been drafted in to London, the reality of 24 hospitals having declared critical incidents, the reality of having some hospitals having to cancel all their routine surgery, the reality of general practices having to cancel clinics on the day.

I’m a GP, I’ve never known it this bad. We’re having to literally contact patients without notice that the staff member or a doctor or nurse just isn’t in today because they’re self-isolating.

This is not normal, and therefore, the government does need to recognise this is clearly an NHS under extreme pressure and the living reality sadly for thousands of patients is that they’re suffering the consequences of such pressures and also staff absence.

Nagpaul said he wanted to see more done to bring Omicron cases down, better protection for health workers, including higher-grade masks, and guaranteed access to lateral flow tests for NHS staff.

© Provided by The Guardian
Dr Chaand Nagpaul. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer