David Milliken

LONDON, (Reuters) – Last week saw a drop in reservations at British restaurants due to a surge of COVID-19 patients. On Thursday, the Office for National Statistics published data showing that COVID-related absences had reached a new record.

These numbers highlighted the effect of the Omicron variant, which is highly infectious and caused by an increase in COVID-19 case cases. The peak was Jan. 4. Some economists are optimistic that Omicron’s economic impact will be limited as cases have fallen 19% in the last week.

The ONS published figures by OpenTable weekly, which show that restaurant reservations fell to 88% from the level of the same week in 2020.

Although pubs and restaurants are not subject to new COVID-19 regulations in England, many customers have chosen to avoid them.

Businesses in the hotel and food industry reported an increase of cancellations for December at 44%, compared to 64% in businesses that fall under the “other services” category. This includes beauty salons and other businesses such as hairdressers.

Separate Bank of England data relating to credit and debit card purchases in the week ended Jan. 6 (which aren’t seasonally adjusted) showed that 82% of the average for February 2020, which was 86% last week, had fallen to 82%.

A late-December ONS survey, published simultaneously on Thursday, revealed that 2.7% were absent due to COVID symptoms. This is the highest level since June 2020, when comparable numbers were first collected.