Covid: Omicron almost dominant in North East Lincolnshire

Thousands of cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus have now been detected in the UK

Omicron is on the cusp of becoming North East Lincolnshire's dominant Covid strain, the council has warned.

A report said there had been a drop in Delta cases in the last two weeks but the number of new variant cases were doubling roughly every three days.

Covid infection rates were highest in young people, mainly primary school age, the epidemiology report found.

The research said there was "no evidence" the new variant created more severe illness than earlier strains.

Figures for the seven days to 19 December showed the area recorded a rate of 448 new infections per 100,000 residents, slightly down on the previous week.

The report said "Although there has been a decrease in the number of Delta cases in the last two weeks it is likely that there will be an increase in new infections of the Omicron variant due to the highly transmissible nature of the variant."

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The document said 208 probable cases of Omicron were discovered between December 8 and 18, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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