Originally Published: 14 DEC 21 08:54 ET

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

(CNN) -- The United Kingdom's Covid-19 response was under pressure on Tuesday, with the National Health Service (NHS) website crashing due to demand for booster appointments, lateral flow test kits no longer available online and long queues at vaccination walk-in centers.

In the run-up to a holiday season that the British government promised would return to normality after last year's heavily restricted affair, a weary nation is instead being wracked by a new crisis: Omicron.

The scramble for booster shots and tests comes just days after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a slew of new Covid-19 measures in the face of an incoming "tidal wave" of infections from the Omicron variant.

Omicron has left one person dead in the UK and prompted warnings it could surpass the Delta variant to become dominant in the country by Christmas. Johnson has told people to "set aside" the idea that the variant is mild.

Britain's beleaguered leader is facing a major test of his authority on Tuesday, with members of his own Conservative party preparing to rebel against measures on working from home, Covid passports and mask-wearing in a vote in Parliament. He will be forced to rely on support from the opposition Labour Party to pass the new restrictions, which are a significant departure from the government's pandemic response in recent months. Johnson lifted all Covid-19 rules on "freedom day" in July and has until now resisted the more robust mitigation measures imposed in parts of Europe, like vaccine passports and mask mandates.

The Prime Minister is also embroiled in a scandal over reports that Downing Street held a number of staff holiday parties last winter, when the rest of the UK was living under strict rules banning social mixing. He has been forced to deny that he fast-tracked Covid rules in order to distract from his political woes.

The British government has insisted that its new booster drive, which aims to deliver third doses to every adult by the end of December -- a month earlier than planned -- is the best way to stop the spread of cases and avoid imposing further restrictions. To do so, the UK will need to "hit warp speed" on its vaccination rollout, Johnson said on Monday from a London vaccination center, where he urged the public to step up as volunteer stewards or paid vaccinators.

"We'll have to attain a pace and a number of daily booster doses that will exceed anything that we've done before," he added.

But on Monday, the NHS booking system did not appear to be coping with the huge surge in demand for appointments. More than 100,000 people in England booked booster doses overnight, Chief Executive of NHS England Amanda Pritchard said on Monday. Responding to reports of the website crashing Monday morning, Pritchard acknowledged there had been "some glitches on the system."

Despite the breakdown, Pritchard asked members of the public to keep trying, stressing that "more slots are going on all the time." She also asked those living close to walk-in clinics to make use of this facility if possible, despite people reporting having to queue up in the street for up to five hours.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has also warned that the vaccination campaign will not be enough to stop the spread of Omicron, with an estimated one in four people not eligible for boosters due to being unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. The BMA has called for a return of face masks to pubs and restaurants, as well as 2-meter social distancing in all indoor settings.

"Despite describing the current situation as an 'emergency' with a 'tidal wave' of infections on the horizon, the Government's response relying entirely on the vaccine booster programme is missing the wider measures required to control the spread of Omicron," Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair said in a statement on Monday.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday that the British government was redeploying NHS staff to accelerate the booster vaccination effort, postponing some urgent appointments and elective surgeries until the new year to prioritize booster shots.

"These are steps that no health secretary would wish to take unless they were absolutely necessary, but I am convinced that if we don't prioritize the booster now the health consequences will far more grave," Javid said.

The health secretary added that there may now be as many as 200,000 Omicron infections a day -- a figure that the UK Health Security Agency said was based on modeling -- with the strain accounting for 20% of cases in England. Covid passports will be toughened to require people to have a booster or recent lateral flow test in the new year, Javid said.

The government has also advised fully vaccinated contacts of a Covid-19 case to take daily lateral flow tests for seven days to slow the spread of the virus.

But the UK's supply of home testing kits -- usually available to be ordered from the government's website -- also appeared to run dry on Monday. Users in England logging on on Monday received a message saying "sorry there are no more tests available," asking them to "try again later."

Originally Published: 14 DEC 21 08:54 ET

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

(CNN) -- The United Kingdom's Covid-19 response was under pressure on Tuesday, with the National Health Service (NHS) website crashing due to demand for booster appointments, lateral flow test kits no longer available online and long queues at vaccination walk-in centers.

In the run-up to a holiday season that the British government promised would return to normality after last year's heavily restricted affair, a weary nation is instead being wracked by a new crisis: Omicron.

The scramble for booster shots and tests comes just days after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a slew of new Covid-19 measures in the face of an incoming "tidal wave" of infections from the Omicron variant.

Omicron has left one person dead in the UK and prompted warnings it could surpass the Delta variant to become dominant in the country by Christmas. Johnson has told people to "set aside" the idea that the variant is mild.

Britain's beleaguered leader is facing a major test of his authority on Tuesday, with members of his own Conservative party preparing to rebel against measures on working from home, Covid passports and mask-wearing in a vote in Parliament. He will be forced to rely on support from the opposition Labour Party to pass the new restrictions, which are a significant departure from the government's pandemic response in recent months. Johnson lifted all Covid-19 rules on "freedom day" in July and has until now resisted the more robust mitigation measures imposed in parts of Europe, like vaccine passports and mask mandates.

The Prime Minister is also embroiled in a scandal over reports that Downing Street held a number of staff holiday parties last winter, when the rest of the UK was living under strict rules banning social mixing. He has been forced to deny that he fast-tracked Covid rules in order to distract from his political woes.

The British government has insisted that its new booster drive, which aims to deliver third doses to every adult by the end of December -- a month earlier than planned -- is the best way to stop the spread of cases and avoid imposing further restrictions. To do so, the UK will need to "hit warp speed" on its vaccination rollout, Johnson said on Monday from a London vaccination center, where he urged the public to step up as volunteer stewards or paid vaccinators.

"We'll have to attain a pace and a number of daily booster doses that will exceed anything that we've done before," he added.

But on Monday, the NHS booking system did not appear to be coping with the huge surge in demand for appointments. More than 100,000 people in England booked booster doses overnight, Chief Executive of NHS England Amanda Pritchard said on Monday. Responding to reports of the website crashing Monday morning, Pritchard acknowledged there had been "some glitches on the system."

Despite the breakdown, Pritchard asked members of the public to keep trying, stressing that "more slots are going on all the time." She also asked those living close to walk-in clinics to make use of this facility if possible, despite people reporting having to queue up in the street for up to five hours.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has also warned that the vaccination campaign will not be enough to stop the spread of Omicron, with an estimated one in four people not eligible for boosters due to being unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. The BMA has called for a return of face masks to pubs and restaurants, as well as 2-meter social distancing in all indoor settings.

"Despite describing the current situation as an 'emergency' with a 'tidal wave' of infections on the horizon, the Government's response relying entirely on the vaccine booster programme is missing the wider measures required to control the spread of Omicron," Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair said in a statement on Monday.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday that the British government was redeploying NHS staff to accelerate the booster vaccination effort, postponing some urgent appointments and elective surgeries until the new year to prioritize booster shots.

"These are steps that no health secretary would wish to take unless they were absolutely necessary, but I am convinced that if we don't prioritize the booster now the health consequences will far more grave," Javid said.

The health secretary added that there may now be as many as 200,000 Omicron infections a day -- a figure that the UK Health Security Agency said was based on modeling -- with the strain accounting for 20% of cases in England. Covid passports will be toughened to require people to have a booster or recent lateral flow test in the new year, Javid said.

The government has also advised fully vaccinated contacts of a Covid-19 case to take daily lateral flow tests for seven days to slow the spread of the virus.

But the UK's supply of home testing kits -- usually available to be ordered from the government's website -- also appeared to run dry on Monday. Users in England logging on on Monday received a message saying "sorry there are no more tests available," asking them to "try again later."