to intensive care units, and so that could be a positive sign. the prime minister, on a visit to this vaccination centre in milton keynes, was pushing the message for people to get boosted. cases are going up, we ve got a lot of cases of 0micron. but on the other hand, we can see the data about the relative mildness of 0micron, and what we can also see is the very, very clear effect of getting those jabs, getting those boosters in particular. that s what is making a huge difference. mrjohnson says 90% of covid patients in icu haven t had a booster, but there s still uncertainty over what impact the 0micron variant will have on older age groups as the virus spreads from young into those who are most at risk of falling seriously ill. katherine da costa, bbc news. well, let s look at the latest government data now. some of the figures are still being affected by delays
older age groups as the virus spreads from young to those most at risk of falling seriously ill. katherine da costa, bbc news. our health correspondent cath burnsjoins me now. what do you make of this figure released today of hospital admissions in england around 50% higher than a week ago? they are now almost at a point where we were ten months ago so if we break the numbers down, 10,520 patients in hospital in england and thatis patients in hospital in england and that is up 2000 injust patients in hospital in england and that is up 2000 in just two days. there are some factors that could have posted this because once someone is in hospital and have recovered it can be harder to get them discharged over christmas so it could be that hundreds of those people may well have recovered but just have not left hospital yet. so we rely more on new admissions and last week we had a daily average of about 800 new tents for patients in england every day in hospital and now it is closer to 130
the government says more kits are being made available. meanwhile new figures show more than 10,000 people in england are in hospital with covid the highest number since march. our health correspondent katherine da costa has more. george and his wife nikki are both gps in leeds. he tested positive on a lateral flow device which means as a lateral flow device which means as a health worker his wife cannot return to work until she has received a negative pcr test. the website is not received a negative pcr test. lie: website is not showing received a negative pcr test. tue: website is not showing availability but it does not seem to hold true throughout the day. people have found availability later in the day so there is this pattern of delay in being able to book locally on the government booking site. at being able to book locally on the government booking site. at some oint toda government booking site. at some point today there government booking site. at some point today there
in a week or so but a huge in a week or so but huge and difficult decisions may have to be made before we have the full picture. to continue as we are or impose new restrictions to protect lives and the nhs. katharine da costa, bbc news. the government s latest coronavirus figures for the uk show there were more than 90,000 new infections recorded, in the latest 24 hour period, which doesn t include figures for wales. the average over the past week is now more than 73,000 new cases every day. the number of people in hospital with covid as of 16th december is more than 7,600. 125 deaths were recorded, that s of people who ve died within 28 days of a positive test. wales also hasn t recorded any death figures today. ii2 covid related deaths were recorded on average every day in the past week. on vaccinations nearly 650,000 people a day had boosters on average
we understand. will leave at the end of the month, we understand. the mayor of london has declared a major incident because of surging coronavirus cases. sadiq khan says he s concerned about the spread of the omicron variant in the capital and the impact of staff absences in vital public services. it comes as government s scientific advisors warn that more stringent measures could be needed this year to prevent a wave of hospitalisations. here s our health correspondent katherine da costa. some vaccine centres like this one in north london are now open 2a hours a day as staff go all out to getjabs into arms. but the acceleration of boosters can t compete with a variant that is doubling every two days. in london omicron is already driving a huge wave of infections prompting this announcement from the mayor sadiq khan. we are incredibly concerned by the huge surge in the omicron variant. over the last 2a hours we have had the largest number of new cases since this pandemic began more