UK scientists: bring in curbs now or face up to 2m daily Covid infections as Omicron spreads

Deaths could hit 6,000 a day and delaying restrictions until New Year will cut effectiveness, say Sage experts

Read more: is there any good news at all on Omicron?

The scale of the threat posed by the Omicron variant was laid bare by government scientists last night as they warned that there are now hundreds of thousands of infections every day. That daily number could reach between 600,000 and 2 million by the end of the month if new restrictions are not brought in immediately.

The government's SPI-M-O group of scientists, which reports to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), also warned that, based on their modelling, hospitalisations could peak between 3,000 and 10,000 a day and deaths at between 600 and 6,000 a day.