Boris Johnson will hold a press conference at 6pm amid expectations he will announce the implementation of tighter Covid restrictions, No 10 has confirmed.
It is anticipated the press minister will announce whether the government has decided to press ahead with “plan B” measures — first outlined in the summer — which includes work from home guidance and Covid vaccine status certificates for certain venues.
It comes after a meeting of the government’s Covid operations committee on Wednesday to discuss the restrictions after a leading scientist said cases of the new omicron variant were “doubling every two to three days”.
The total number of UK omicron cases so far stands at 437, after 101 more were reported on Tuesday, while the the country recorded its highest number of weekly cases since January on Monday and a further 51,342 on Wednesday.
According to the government’s Covid autumn and winter plan, published in September, the plan B strategy would “only be enacted if the data suggests further measures are necessary to protect the NHS”.
It stated the measures include a mandatory vaccine-only Covid status certification in certain settings, such as nightclubs and indoor crowded venues with 500 or more attendees likely to be in close proximity with other households.
It also proposed the return of work from home guidance, with the Sage committee stressing the measure had played an “important role in preventing sustained epidemic growth” in the months before Covid restrictions were released.
Another key tenant of “plan B” is to legally mandate face coverings in certain settings — a measure that has already been adopted by the prime minister a fortnight ago for public transport and shops, but could be extended to further settings.
It comes after a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) today said that a UK-wide lockdown to deal with the threat of omicron cannot be ruled out.
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, whose data was instrumental to the UK going into lockdown in March 2020, said the variant is concerning but it is still unknown what its impact will be on severe disease.
News of the press conference, however, was also greeted with scepticism by Westminster insiders earlier on Wednesday, who suspected that the timing may have been calculated to distract attention from damaging headlines over a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street last year.
Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser at No 10, described the move towards plan B as a “dead cat” strategy.
