A small area of south London is at the epicentre of the mounting Omicron crisis and last week in the the Acre Lane area of west Brixton, where majority of ICU patients are unvaccinated, around one in ten people had Covid

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Coronavirus: UK cases up by 91,743 as Omicron spreads

The UK’s top 10 Covid hotspot are all in south London with the virus’ epicentre within just a few mile radius, worrying new data shows.

The worse hit places can be found from Brixton through Clapham and Tooting as the capital continues to be ravaged by the deadly bug.

In the Acre Lane area of west Brixton last week, around one in ten people had Covid, statistics reveal.

The majority of ICU patients are unvaccinated, MyLondon reports.

It comes as a total of 301 COVID-19 admissions were recorded by hospitals in London on December 20, NHS England has said – a 78% week-on-week rise.

The borough of Wandsworth recorded seven of the 10 highest places where positive test results were given.

Overall, London accounts for 47 of the top 50 areas.

Clapham North, Tooting Bec Common, Putney Town and Wandsworth Park and Clapham South are all at the centre of the outbreak.

Balham, Clapham Junction, Summerstown, St Mary’s & Cotton Row and Tooting Bec East are also hotspots.

Outside London, the next worst-hit area is Nottingham, latest Covid estimates show.

More Covid data published today, included the latest infection levels, antibody estimates, absences for hospital staff and local vaccine take-up, along with the usual daily numbers for cases, hospital admissions and deaths.

It comes as the Government faces growing pressure to clarify its tipping point for imposing further restrictions with new figures showing the number of NHS staff absences for Covid reasons at acute trusts in London has more than doubled in the last week.

Across England as a whole, 18,829 NHS staff at acute hospital trusts were absent due to reasons relating to coronavirus on December 19, up 54% from 12,240 a week earlier and up 51% from 12,508 at the start of the month, according to the data from NHS England.

Nearly 1.4 million people in private households in the UK had Covid-19 in the week ending December 16, the highest estimate since comparable figures began in autumn 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This includes just over 1.2 million people in England, or around one in 45 – up from one in 60 in the previous week.

In London, the latest estimate is even higher, at one in 30.

In Wales, around one in 55 people is estimated to have had COVID-19 in the week to December 16, unchanged from the previous week, while in Northern Ireland the latest estimate is one in 50 people, also unchanged from the previous week.

For Scotland, the latest estimate is one in 70, up from one in 80.

COVID-19 antibody levels among adults in the UK are estimated to have reached a record high.

Some 95.0% of the adult population of England is likely to have tested positive for antibodies in the week beginning November 29, along with 95.0% in Scotland, 95.3% in Northern Ireland and 93.6% in Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics.

These are the highest figures for all four nations since the ONS began estimating antibody levels in December 2020.

There has been an increase in antibody positivity in those aged 65 years and over across the UK since early October 2021, which the ONS said was “likely as a result of the vaccination booster programme”.

Welsh economy minister said he does not think England’s position on Covid restrictions will remain the same “for very much longer”.

Vaughan Gething told Times Radio: “We’ve doubled our package because we know that there is a direct impact from the alert level two-style interventions we’ve had to introduce to protect the public.

“I’ve met regularly with Dave Chapman (UKHospitality’s executive director for Wales) and other stakeholders over the last few days making clear the seriousness of the position we’re at…we’re actually being a bit more generous than the money that’s on offer in England.

“Of course, Dave’s talking about England continuing to be open. Well, I’m not sure that’s going to be the position for very much longer.”

For all the Covid hotspots, click here.