Covid cases plunge in London as Omicron wave falls away

• The biggest drop in cases was in Havering, down 54.3 per cent to 2,383 in the week to January 12.
• Twelve boroughs saw falls of more than 40 per cent in a week including Bexley (49.3 per cent), Bromley (48.1 per cent), Sutton (47.5 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (46.6 per cent), and Croydon (45 per cent).
• A further 15 boroughs saw declines of at least 30 per cent.
• The smallest drop was in Westminster of 25.1 per cent.
• For London as a whole, the seven-day infection rate was 1039.9 confirmed cases per 100,000 people, down 38.6 per cent on the previous week.
• For Londoners aged 60 and over, the rate fell from 1,327.9 on January 2 to 609.1 on the 12th, and for those aged 59 and under it went down from 1,885 to 1,125.5.
• A further 9,775 confirmed cases were announced for the city yesterday, the second day in a row that the daily total has been below 10,000 since December 12. The figures may be affected by changes to the testing regime, with people without symptoms who test positive on lateral flow tests no longer having to take a confirmatory PCR. However, the number of patients with Covid admitted to London’s hospitals has also dropped to 253 on Saturday, the lowest since December 19.

The number of patients with coronavirus in the city’s hospitals was 3,537 on Monday, compared to 4,074 on January 5, with 219 so ill that they are on ventilators.

Around one in three Covid patients was admitted to hospital primarily for another health reason. The drop in cases and hospitalisations will fuel calls for the Government to ditch or scale back Plan B, including working from home, by a January 26 review point or earlier.

The Covid jabs roll-out has been key to limiting the number of severe cases of the disease.

So far, 6,350,841 first doses have been administered in London, 5,779,116 second innoculations, and 3,898,319 boosters or third doses for individuals vulnerable to the virus.

The detailed figures for London show: