More than 3,800 staff were off last week at acute NHS hospital trusts.
NHS bed occupancy rates are 5% higher than last year, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson saysNon-urgent operations are already being cancelled across the capital's hospitals due to the Omicron surge.
As the new variant hit London at the start of the month, Covid absences, either through illness or self-isolation, saw 1,174 staff at acute NHS hospital trusts absent, rising to 1,540 by mid-December and 3,874 on Sunday 19 December. BBC London has spent time with NHS frontline workers at Barts Health NHS Trust who said it had been relentless during the pandemic and they were exhausted.Staff at London's largest health trust say they are anxious about the new year and Omicron
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