The United Kingdom has announced that at least one person died from the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement on Monday as the country launched an ambitious COVID-19 booster shot program to stop the virus’ spread.
Britain is the first government to announce an Omicron related death.
Johnson said that Omicron accounted for about 40 percent of the cases in the capital, and hospital admissions are now on the rise.
“Sadly, at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with Omicron,” he said.
Johnson said that the UK is now facing a tidal wave of new infections and emergency measures will be needed in order to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
As of Sunday, there have been 3,137 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the UK.
