London mayor Sadiq Khan has declared a “major incident” due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 across the capital and the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed by the surge in cases.

A major incident is defined as being “beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations, and is likely to involve serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security,” the mayor’s office said in an 8 January statement.