Boris Johnson has once more been forced to introduce social restrictions to combat the coronavirus, with the recent emergence of the omicron variant in southern Africa providing fresh cause for concern.
As we head into the festive season, the prime minister has brought back mandatory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship, asked citizens to work from home where possible and made an NHS Covid Pass or negative lateral flow test a necessary requirement for entry to crowded venues and events involving mass gatherings.
The precise characteristics of the new strain are not clear at this early stage in its development, although it is feared it could have the potential to usurp the delta variant as the dominant strain of Covid-19 in a matter of weeks given its high transmissibility.
In his most recent televised address on the pandemic on Sunday evening, Mr Johnson warned of a “tidal wave” of infections breaking on these shores unless the public adhere to the new measures and get their vaccine booster jab as a matter of urgency.
The rollout of third shots is being greatly expanded to address the omicron threat, with the aim of offering one to all over-18s by the end of December, bringing forward that deadline by a month and placing further pressure on medical professionals across the country in the process.
That decision came in response to findings by the UK Health Security Agency indicating that two jabs do not offer strong protection against symptomatic infection from omicron, with the current suite of vaccines less effective against it than they were against delta.
However, that same analysis also concluded that those who had received a booster remained up to 70 per cent protected, underlining the importance of getting a third shot as soon as possible.
On Monday, the UK confirmed the first death from the new variant globally while health secretary Sajid Javid estimated that the rate of omicron infections was already at around 200,000 per day, with the strain expected to become dominant in London imminently.
NHS England meanwhile announced that it will return to its highest level of emergency preparedness, level four national incident, meaning that the NHS response to omicron will be coordinated as a national effort rather than led by individual trusts.
Confirmed Covid cases have since risen to 59,610 in the latest figures, with the number of infections over the past seven days up 12.1 per cent to 360,480.
A further 150 more deaths were also recorded, making 801 in total over the course of the last seven days.
Meanwhile, just 41.9 per cent of British adults have had their booster injection so far, although demand is high so that figure should continue to climb rapidly as more people make an appointment and roll up their sleeves.
Speaking during a visit to a west London vaccination clinic on Monday, Mr Johnson sought to strike a reassuring note, saying: “Throughout the pandemic I’ve been at great pains to stress to the public that we have to watch where the pandemic is going and we take whatever steps are necessary to protect public health.
“We think the steps that we are taking – so Plan B, combined with a hugely ambitious acceleration of the booster campaign, bringing it forward by a month so we offer a booster to every adult by the end of the year – we think that’s the right approach.”
It has now been confirmed that the PM will hold a Covid press briefing on Wednesday 15 December, at 5pm, alongside chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and NHS director Dr Nikki Kanani.
Reports also suggest an emergency Cobra meeting will be held in Westminster this afternoon with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland taking part.
The usual statistical update will certainly take place this evening and we can expect further announcements from the prime minister in the coming days, if not today, as the omicron situation develops.
