Confirmed cases of the Omicron Covid variant have been discovered in St Albans.

The government has this afternoon (Friday) released localised figures for the variant of concern which show that on November 29 there were two confirmed cases in the borough.

There was also one 'S-gene target failure' - a characteristic of Omicron.

Confirming cases of Omicron requires further sequencing but S-gene target failure (SGTF) can be detected immediately with positive cases.

On December 6, the latest date for localised figures, St Albans had no more confirmed Omicron cases but nine SGTFs.

 

Overall in England the were 448 confirmed cases as of December 8.

The government has said Omicron is "growing rapidly" in all regions of England as it spreads more easily than the Delta variant.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimates that if Omicron continues to grow at the present rate it will become the UK's dominant strain by mid-December. 

The government stressed that information about the vaccines' effectiveness against Omicron should be interpreted with caution as it is based on very small numbers of cases.

But early analysis of 581 cases showed AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines provided much lower levels of protection against symptomatic infection compared to the protection they provide against Delta.

However, preliminary data also showed effectiveness against the new variant appears to increase considerably in the early period after a booster dose, providing around 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection.