British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said that the UK's state-run hospitals will face “considerable pressure” in the coming weeks due to the steep rise in virus infections.

Speaking during a visit to a vaccine centre, Johnson said “the pressure on our NHS hospitals is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks and maybe more” as “Omicron continues to surge through the country”.

The UK saw record numbers of cases in the last days of 2021 though it has not released figures for the whole country this year. The country is one of Europe's worst affected with a death toll of nearly 149,000, AFP reports.