UK medics warn of looming breaking point as omicron spreads

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main nurses’ union has warned that exhaustion and surging coronavirus cases among medical staff are pushing them to breaking point. That is adding to pressure on the government for new restrictions to bring down record-high infection numbers driven by the omicron variant. The England director for the Royal College of Nursing union said Monday that the situation over the next few weeks looked “very bleak,” as growing absences from sickness and self-isolation hit hospitals. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces an agonizing choice: wreck the holiday plans of millions or face a tidal wave of cases and disruption. Many governments in Europe and the U.S. face similar dilemmas.