New Year’s eve on a knife edge: Boris Johnson set to make decision on new restrictions on Monday as London’s daily Covid hospital admissions surge 92% to 386 – within touching distance of No10’s ‘threshold for action’

• The PM is set to review the latest Covid figures on Monday as further restriction could be imposed before NYE
• Covid hospital admissions in London are within touching distance of the threshold of 400 for a lockdown 
• Ministers are said to be watching admission rates in London before pulling the trigger on more national curbs

Further Covid restrictions could be imposed just in time for New Year’s Eve as Boris Johnson is set to review the latest figures on Monday.

Covid hospital admissions in London — Britain’s Omicron ground zero — are within touching distance of the Government’s threshold of 400 for introducing lockdown restrictions across the country.

Latest NHS data shows there were 386 new admissions for the virus in the capital on December 22, marking a 92 per cent rise on the figure last week.

Covid hospitalisations are now doubling roughly every 10 days – though they are still a far cry from the 850 at the peak last January. 

Johnson may have to make a call on more restrictions by Tuesday at the latest so they can be implemented in time for New Year’s Eve, The Times reports. 

Paramedics unload a patient from an ambulance outside the Royal London Hospital in London on Friday as the UK records 114,625 new coronavirus cases

Reports have claimed ministers are watching hospitalisation numbers in the capital, with a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown set to be imposed if daily numbers surpass 400

Covid hospital admissions in London — Britain’s Omicron ground zero — are within touching distance of the Government’s threshold of 400 for introducing lockdown restrictions across the country 

Covid hospitalisations are now doubling roughly every 10 days – though they are still a far cry from the 850 at the peak last January

An age breakdown of the number of covid patients admitted to hospital since the start of the pandemic (left) and as the rate per 100,000 people since the start of the pandemic (right)

Ministers are said to be watching admission rates in the capital before pulling the trigger on more national curbs because London is a few weeks ahead in its Omicron outbreak.

A national two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown has been mooted after Christmas if London’s daily admissions breach 400 this week — which would signal ‘unsustainable’ pressure on the NHS. 

London became the epicentre of the UK’s Omicron outbreak two weeks before the super mutant variant became dominant across the country and experts are treating trends in the city as a sign of what could come for England. 

But NHS data recording lags mean it will be after Christmas before it is known whether admissions surpassed 400 in the last two days.  

Shoppers on Oxford Street on Christmas Eve. Further Covid restrictions could be imposed just in time for New Year’s Eve as Boris Johnson is set to review the latest figures on Monday

People shopping on Oxford Street earlier this Friday. A national two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown has been mooted after Christmas if London’s daily admissions breach 400 this week

MPs and experts have now demanded the Government distinguishes between people who are being hospitalised ‘with’ or ‘for’ Covid before deciding on social restrictions. 

MailOnline’s analysis of London Covid admissions show that a third (127) of the 386 new patients only tested positive after arriving at hospital for a different illness. 

The proportion of so-called ‘incidental admissions’ was around 12 per cent in the last two weeks of the Delta variant at the end of November, for comparison. 

London became the epicentre of the UK’s Omicron outbreak two weeks before the super mutant variant became dominant across the country and experts are treating trends in the city as a sign of what could come for England. Pictured, shoppers walking along Regent Street on December 24

People walking around in the capital earlier this Friday. MailOnline’s analysis of London Covid admissions show that a third (127) of the 386 new patients only tested positive after arriving at hospital for a different illness

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