Covid: Omicron variant 'rising in Birmingham'

Commuters at Birmingham New Street station are pictured as mask-wearing on public transport becomes mandatory subject to personal exemptions

Cases of the Omicron variant are rising in Birmingham, the city's director of public health has said, but not "astronomically fast".

Dr Justin Varney said there had been a 15% increase in overall Covid-19 cases in Birmingham in the last seven days compared with the previous week.

He added of the 4,120 cases currently, a "small number" were confirmed Omicron infections.

People aged 18 to 29 will be able to book vaccine boosters from Wednesday.

Dr Varney told BBC Radio WM: "At the moment, the Omicron variant is rising here, but not astronomically fast… I do expect it to follow the same pattern as Delta - starting in London, spreading widely up here before travelling further north."

He said public health and NHS teams have been working non-stop since Sunday's announcement by the prime minister that all eligible over-18s should be offered a booster jab by 31 December.

"We are pulling out all the stops to make it possible… but the important thing is that people take up the offer.

"There are already walk-in sites across the city where we're increasing capacity and we're also setting up pop-ups as we speak… this is team effort for team Birmingham to get us over the line."

Asked about parts of Birmingham where less than 50% of the population were yet to receive a first dose of vaccine, such as Alum Rock, Dr Varney said the age range of the area was relevant.

"It's important to recognise that these are often very young parts of the city… which skews the overall picture, but the uptake in over-60s is going OK," he said.

"Many of these [residents] have only just become eligible and we do need to do more to get them through."

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The NHS is increasing jab capacity across the West Midlands.

Lisa McNally, director of public health for Sandwell, has said capacity at the area's main vaccine centre will be doubled from Tuesday, with other ways being examined to expand the scheme.