New restrictions to deal with Omicron are ‘inevitable’, says Sadiq Khan

Speaking to BBC One’s “The Andrew Marr Show”, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said, “Over the last few days we’ve seen a major surge of Omicron”.

Mr Khan stated, “In the last 24 hours, we’ve had almost 30,000 confirmed cases, in the last seven days, [there have been] more than 130,000 confirmed new cases, so the direction of travel is only going one way”.

Revealing that he was not invited to an emergency COBRA meeting, Mr Khan added that he was “hoping that he [the PM] understands the challenges our city is facing”.

“If new restrictions are brought in, and by the way it’s inevitable, there must … be a major package of financial support for our hospitality, culture and retail [sectors]”. 

Yesterday, Mr Khan declared a “major incident” due to the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the capital.

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.

Mr Khan said Omicron is now the “dominant variant” in London and was having an impact on staff absences in the emergency services across the city.

He added: “Hospital admissions are going up, but also staff absences are going up by a massive level. So I’ve taken the decision in consultation with our partners to declare a major incident today”.