Concern is growing about the “leakage” of Omicron infections from younger to older people, even as overall case numbers flatten in the hotspot of London.
The education secretary said ministers are watching closely rising case rates in over-50s – the more vulnerable age group – ahead of a decision this week on whether to introduce tougher restrictions.
Nadhim Zahawi said infections in the capital, the “epicentre” for the fast-spreading variant, are “beginning to plateau if not drop”.
But he added: “The bit that is more concerning is we’re seeing leakage into the over-50s in terms of infection – and they’re the ones who, if you recall in the earlier waves, ended up in hospital with severe infection and hospitalisation and sadly death rates went up.”
The “good news” was that 90 per cent of over-50s have received a booster jab, including 10 million people since the programme was ramped up last month, Mr Zahawi told BBC Radio 4.
He repeated that there is “nothing in the data at the moment” to require harsher curbs to be imposed when Wednesday’s review of existing ‘plan B’ measures takes place.
But, Mr Zahawi added: “We have to keep a close eye, because we’re seeing some leakage of infections into the over-50s.”
The warning comes after 12 successive days of more than 100,000 new Covid infections across the UK as a whole, even with patchy reporting over the festive period.
Because seriously-ill patients are usually admitted to hospital a week or more after becoming infected, pressure on the NHS is expected to reach its peak at the end of this week.
On Sunday, the health minister Edward Argar admitted that hospital admissions will “potentially” rise for at least two more weeks.
Mr Zahawi also played down growing fears of an NHS staffing crisis, with one in 10 workers off sick on New Year’s Eve – nearly half of them because of Covid.
“The NHS is very good at being able to move staff around within the system. They have an infrastructure to do that,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“They’ve done it over many years in winter when we’ve been, you know, have big flu viruses around.”
Th education secretary also defended reintroducing mask-wearing by secondary school pupils in their classrooms, instead of just in communal areas.
Omicron is “far more infectious”, he pointed out, and a study of 123 schools had identified the benefits of face coverings while students are being taught.
“This is an aerosol-transmitted virus and, if you’re wearing a mask, if you’re asymptomatic, then you’re less likely to infect other people,” Mr Zahawi said.
On schools, he said: “The most important thing is to keep them open. We monitor staff absenteeism, I just said to you we’re running at about 8 per cent last year.
“If that rises further, then we look at things like merging classes, teaching in bigger numbers.”
