Omicron ‘hopefully not as severe’ as feared, vaccine taskforce chief says

Vaccine taskforce chief Kate Bingham told a select committee that she feels the omicron variant is “hopefully not as severe” as feared.

Mrs Bingham said; "It may be it's a milder disease and we need to wait and see on its severity. The government is right to be taking this seriously but data from South Africa suggests it's highly transmissible but hopefully not a severe as we fear."

Following his weekend TV address urging Britons to seek a third jab, Boris Johnson tweeted that more than 500,000 people made an appointment on Monday.

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