A man wearing a face mask walks along Westminster Bridge in London, Britain, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Ying)
Multiple National Health Service (NHS) trusts in Britain have declared critical incidents in their hospitals owing to staff absences.
LONDON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Britain reported 218,724 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, exceeding 200,000 daily cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to official figures released Tuesday.
This brought the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 13,641,520. The country's coronavirus-related death toll rose by 48 to 148,941.
Earlier Tuesday, Health Secretary told Sky News that there's nothing in data at this point that suggests that Britain needs to move away from Plan B, which includes guidance to work from home and mandatory face masks in most public indoor venues.
The British government is not planning to cut the isolation period from seven days to five days, as the United States has done, he said.
Meanwhile, multiple National Health Service (NHS) trusts have declared critical incidents in their hospitals owing to staff absences.
Kevin McNamara, chief executive of the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Swindon, said that following a "tough few days," an "internal critical incident" had been declared.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) touches elbows with a recipient as he visits a vaccination center in Aylesbury, Britain, Jan. 3, 2022. (Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua)
It is because of "sustained high levels of demand, COVID and non-COVID, and availability of beds," McNamara added. "We always knew that January would be a tough month for everyone and our modeling shows that it is likely to get tougher in the next few weeks."
NHS will be under "considerable" pressure in the coming weeks amid the wave of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday.
"No question Omicron continues to surge through the country," Johnson said at a vaccination center. "I think we've got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more."
More than 90 percent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first vaccine, and around 82 percent have received both doses, according to the latest figures. More than 59 percent have received a booster jab, or the third dose.
A woman wearing a face mask takes selfies in London, Britain, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Ying)■
