Boris Johnson has said that he is not immediately imposing any further Covid restrictions in England, but will not hesitate to do so if the data shows it is necessary.
Speaking at the end of a three-hour emergency meeting of cabinet, Mr Johnson said that the arguments for and against going beyond the current Plan B restrictions were “finely balanced”.
He said that ministers had agreed that the data on infections, hospitalisations and deaths should be kept under “constant review” on an hour-by-hour basis.
And he said he would not hesitate to take further action to protect public health if the data showed it to be needed.
The prime minister’s scientific advisers have warned that action is needed urgently to save the NHS from being overwhelmed.
Minutes of advisory group Sage’s last meeting on Thursday warned “more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon” to prevent hospitalisations reaching thousands per day.
And the Sage experts warned that delaying until the New Year would “greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings”.
Scientists have reportedly offered Mr Johnson three options for potential action – non-legally binding advice to families to limit indoor mixing over the Christmas period; new restrictions on indoor mixing, a return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew on pubs and restaurants; or a full-scale “firebreak” lockdown.
Mr Johnson said: “I agree that the situation is extremely difficult and the arguments either way are very, very finely balanced.
“We’ve got cases of Omicron surging across the country now we’ve got hospitalisations, rising quite steeply in in London and the obvious conclusion is that of course it was right to go fast to Plan B in the way that we did and also right to double the speed of the booster rollout.”
But he said that there were “risks and uncertainties” surrounding the rate at which people infected with Omicron are likely to end up in hospital, the severity of any illness caused and the effectiveness of the booster vaccine in fighting off the variant.
“We agreed that we should keep the data from now on under constant review, keep following it hour by hour,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I must say to people we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public and to protect public health and to protect our NHS, and we won’t hesitate to take that action.”
Mr Johnson added: “In the meantime what I would say to everybody is ‘Please exercise caution as you go about your lives. Please think of the guidance and protecting yourself and your loved ones.
“‘And please get a booster. Please get a vaccination.’
“It could not be more urgent. There are still millions of people in this country who haven’t got a vaccination and it makes such a difference. The evidence is overwhelming. It’s such a positive thing to do.
“And I say to all those people who are vaccinated whether out of apathy or whatever reason, please, please please think of this as a great thing to do for yourself and for your family to get boosted now.”
Mr Johnson said the government was ruling nothing out in terms of future measures, but for the time being was relying on Plan B restrictions – including mandatory facemasks in many enclosed public spaces and Covid passes for crowded events – as well as public caution on issues like ventilation and hand hygiene.
He said it was clear that the public was already voluntarily taking precautions in terms of cancelling planned entertainment, shopping and get-togethers over the festive period.
“You can see in people’s patterns of behaviour since we went to Plan B that they are changing the way they go about their lives, they are changing some of the assumptions they make about the things that they want to do,” said the PM.
“I know that that has had consequences for some parts of our economy, some parts of the hospitality sector. In many ways I regret that. But if it can help to get down the R, get done the way the disease is multiplying, that can be very helpful to us and and to the country. But what really matters is for everybody to get vaccinated and get boosted above all.”
He said financial support for the entertainment and hospitality industries was “under constant review”, but had no immediate announcement of cash help for struggling businesses.
“Of course I understand how tough it must be and nobody wanted things to go this way,” said Mr Johnson. “Omicron has simply exploded so fast that we’ve seen people naturally deciding to make sure that they they protect themselves and they avoid spreading the disease.
“The benefits of that course of action we may see in the next few days and weeks in the way we’re able to contain the disease but it is important that we act cautiously.
“And of course, it’s also important that we look after the hospitality sector, the theatres and other parts of our incredible entertainment industry which will suffer and are suffering. There are packages of funding already in place and the economic side of this is under constant review as well.”
He rejected allegations that the government was moving too slowly in response to the threat of the new variant.
“As soon as we saw what was happening with Omicron – and you will remember it was very controversial and there were many colleagues in parliament who said ‘No, this goes too far’ – we went ahead with Plan B virtually straight away,” he said. “And I think that was the right thing to do.
“We also doubled the speed of the vaccine rollout, we went into overdrive with the vaccine rollout, with the the booster rollout in particular.
“There are still some things that we need to be clearer about before we decide to go further, but I’ve got to say to the British public we will not exclude going further if we have to do things to protect the public.”
