Omicron in Cumbria: County 'facing 900 cases a day by Christmas'

Cumbria has doubled the number of vaccination slots available a day

Cumbria is on course to record 900 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid a day by Christmas, its public health director has warned.

Colin Cox said about 170 cases had been confirmed in the county, with numbers doubling every two and a half days.

He told BBC Radio Cumbria people should "think carefully" about mixing with others ahead of Christmas.

Mr Cox also said the number of vaccination slots available had doubled and urged people to get booster jabs.

There could be 900 cases of Omicron a day in Cumbria "at the rate we are going", he warned, with the variant spreading across the county after emerging in "hotspots" in the South Lakes and Carlisle.

Cases of the Delta variant in the county have reached a plateau at about 200 cases a day.

Colin Cox said people should think carefully about who they see before Christmas

Mr Cox said it is not clear what impact Omicron cases could have on hospitals yet but "the potential is there for it be very significant".

He cautioned: "If it's really important to you that you see family on or around Christmas Day, you do need to think about what you are doing now.

"If you get Covid now you are self isolating on Christmas Day."

'Remarkable effort'

He said it was "very clear" England's chief medical officer Chris Witty was taking Omicron "incredibly seriously" and is "very worried".

"It's pretty clear if we hadn't done a couple of rounds of lockdown already and if we weren't coming up towards Christmas, there would probably be more significant restrictions being put in place," Mr Cox said.

A lockdown could mean financial support to bars, clubs and restaurants, but currently there is no such support and customers are "effectively voting with their feet", he said.

"The hospitality sector has been battered repeatedly throughout this and without [government] support this could be the final straw for lots of it," he said.

He also urged people to test themselves before going out to avoid "inadvertently passing it on to other people".

Mr Cox said he had been "astonished" by the "absolutely remarkable effort" of NHS workers in Cumbria to double the number of vaccination slots available, which would "enable us to get to the target" of third jabs for every adult by the end of December.

"Vaccination still works, get yourself vaccinated," Mr Cox said.