Jeremy Hunt: Omicron is 'a symptom of the failure of Western countries to share vaccines around the world'

Jeremy Hunt told MPs that he thinks the Omicron Covid variant is "a symptom of the failure of Western countries to share vaccines around the world".

The Conservative chair of the health committee said: "Is it not a moral and practical failure that richer countries have managed to vaccinate 60% of their populations when for poorer countries it is just 3%?"

Health secretary Sajid Javid has refused to rule out a new lockdown in England in response to the threat of the Omicron variant of Covid.

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