LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Cases in the United Kingdom of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus jumped sharply in the latest daily figures provided by British health authorities on Saturday.

Confirmed Omicron-variant COVID-19 cases hit 24,968 as of 1800 GMT on Dec. 17, up by just over 10,000 cases from 24 hours earlier, the UK Health Security Agency said.

(Writing by William Schomberg
Editing by Mark Heinrich)

(( william.schomberg@thomsonreuters.com ; +44 207 542 7778; Reuters Messaging: william.schomberg.reuters.com@reuters.net ))

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Keywords: HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/BRITAIN-OMICRON (URGENT)