In the UK, pubs and restaurants in city centers have suffered losses because of the new restrictions imposed before Christmas and New Year due to the emergence of a strain of the coronavirus “Omicron”, writes the Independent, citing data from the British trade association in the hospitality industry.
The association estimates that each such establishment lost an average of 10,335 pounds (about $13,800) during the week of Christmas. The revenue of establishments on Christmas Day this time was 60 percent lower than in 2019. Some pubs, bars and restaurants won’t be able to continue operating without additional financial help from the government.
On Christmas Eve, restaurants, bars and pubs in the U.K. began canceling planned events en masse due to the spread of the Omicron strain, and people began switching to remote work. On the eve of December 25 Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a system of COVID passes to those establishments where hundreds of people can gather.
For the past few days, the daily increase in COVID-19 in Britain has exceeded 100,000 new cases. As of Wednesday, 183,037 people infected with the coronavirus had been identified in the kingdom in the previous 24 hours.
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