Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 16 December 2021

The Week’s daily digest of the news agenda, published at 8am

1. UK ‘faces two epidemics’

England’s chief medical officer has warned that daily Covid-19 case records “will be broken a lot over the next few weeks as the rates continue to go up” due to the emergence of the Omicron variant. Speaking during a No. 10 press conference, Professor Chris Whitty said the new strain is continuing to spread at an “absolutely phenomenal pace”, adding that the country is experiencing “two epidemics on top of one another”. One is being driven by the “very rapidly-growing” Omicron, he warned, the other by the Delta variant.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us