LONDON (Reuters) – Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday said that the Omicron coronavirus variant was growing exponentially and would overtake Delta as the dominant strain within days, as she tightened self-isolation rules.
Sturgeon said that household contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases would have to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of vaccine status or negative test results, and urged people to reconsider holding Christmas parties.
“Omicron right now is rising exponentially. Indeed what we are seeing in the data just now is perhaps the fastest exponential growth that we have seen in this pandemic so far,” Sturgeon said at a news briefing.
“Omicron is going to very quickly overtake Delta as the dominant strain in Scotland… we expect it to overtake Delta within days, not weeks.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Kate Holton)
