Teens and younger adults helping fuel record cases in US; England records 162,572 cases and 154 deaths
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Russia has reported 847 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours. It also reported 19,751 new coronavirus cases in the same time period, up from 20,638 on the previous day.
The NHS Confederation’s chief executive, Matthew Taylor, agreed with the health secretary the record-breaking Omicron wave of infection will “test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter”, with reports suggesting that a requirement to work from home in England could be in place for most of January.
