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The UK has recorded the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 78,610 new cases on Wednesday.
The previous record was 68,053 on 8 January - when the UK was in lockdown.
Speaking at a news conference, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty warned that records will be broken a lot in the next few weeks.
PM Boris Johnson said it is absolutely vital that everyone gets a booster jab.
He warned that in some areas the doubling rate was now under two days.
Mr Johnson said: "I'm afraid we're also seeing the inevitable increase in hospitalisations up by 10% nationally, week on week, and up by almost a third in London."
Prof Chris Whitty said the country is experiencing with two separate epidemics, one driven by the "very rapidly-growing" Omicron variant and the other by the Delta variant.
He said: "I'm afraid we have to be realistic that records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks as the rates continue to go up."
The scientist added Delta cases appear to still be flat while Omicron is growing.
Cases have risen by nearly 20,000 in one day - on Tuesday, 59,610 confirmed cases were confirmed by the government.
The jump in cases follows the introduction of new measures in recent days, with mandatory face masks in most indoor settings and Covid passes for large events in England.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid refused to rule out introducing new restrictions over the coming weeks, but insisted the measures in place currently are the right ones.
Asked if more guidance would be issued instead of legislation, he told reporters: "We keep the whole situation under review. It is fast moving, I think people understand that."
Mr Javid also said around 60% of cases in London are now of the Omicron variant.
Also on Wednesday, the UK gave out 656,711 booster or third doses of a vaccine - up by over 140,000 on the day before.
There were 165 deaths of people who tested positive for Covid in the previous 28 days.
Concerns over the speed at which the Omicron variant is spreading in the UK have been expressed by scientists and government advisers.
Earlier head of the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Jenny Harries, warned Omicron is "probably the most significant threat" since the pandemic began.
The chief executive of NHS England said the case numbers "should worry all of us" and emphasised they show how important the booster programme is.
Amanda Pritchard told the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee: "That is a stark reminder of why the current national mission to get Covid vaccination is the right one."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59673150
You have to question some of the results from the tests of the vaccines, I would like to see how many of these have had the vaccine. Have they developed the vaccine any further? Perhaps we are still using all that stock we bought up.