Health

Boris Johnson’s surprise decision to end all domestic Covid restrictions in England one month early is either “very brave or very stupid”, scientists have warned.The prime minister told MPs on Wednesday that the legal requirement to self-isolate could be scrapped by the end of this month, instead of at the end of March as originally planned.But the move has been met with unease by the scientific community, with national Covid cases once again on the rise.Mr Johnson was accused of playing “fast and loose with people’s health” in an attempt to placate restive Tory backbenchers as the fallout from Partygate continues.Labour’s West Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the announcement at the start of PMQs was “designed to dig [the prime minister] out of a political hole, with no plan to back it up”.As well as ending the legal requirement to isolate, legal powers for councils to shut down premises linked to outbreaks will be removed. But no changes are expected to international travel restrictions, and the supply of testing kits free of charge will continue, said Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson.One member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said that no consideration had been given to the prospect of lifting self-isolation rules during the most recent meeting. Another scientific adviser to the government said the PM’s announcement “doesn’t seem very cautious”, adding that he was “very concerned that the number of cases remains very high”.Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, called the move “an experiment which will either be shown to be very brave or very stupid – but nobody knows for sure what the result will be”.Guidance will remain in place to stay home after a positive Covid test – as with any infectious disease – but it will not be legally enforceable. No 10 declined to say whether the £500 support payment for those isolating would be withdrawn.“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions – including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive – a full month early,” the PM said.He said he would present the government’s “Living With Covid” strategy when the Commons returned from recess on 21 February. Aides said remaining restrictions were expected to be lifted by 24 February at the latest.The surprise policy announcement came as new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed infection levels had risen in most parts of the UK, with only Wales experiencing a clear week-on-week decline.In England, around one in 19 people was estimated to have had the virus in the week to 5 February, equating to 2.8 million people – up from one in 20 in the previous week. However, the ONS described the trend as “uncertain”.Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said he “certainly didn’t expect” the government to drop its self-isolation guidance this month.He said there were “grounds for optimism” in the current data, pointing to the example of falling cases among children and declining hospital admission rates, but expressed concern over those who are clinically vulnerable, saying: “There need to be robust procedures in place to ensure infections in this group are diagnosed early and antivirals are provided within hours of any positive result.”Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of Nervtag, a subcommittee of Sage, told BBC Radio 4 that “it would be wholly wrong to say that the pandemic is in any way over”, and suggested that the population had “become rather used” to the country’s high infection and death rates.On Wednesday, 68,214 new cases were reported, along with 276 further deaths and 1,196 hospitalisations.“I think we’re all really looking forward to being able to get back to some sort of normality, and we know Omicron is generally fairly mild in people who have immunity, and most adults have immunity now, either because we’ve been vaccinated or because we’ve been infected or both.“So, we’re going in the right direction, but this doesn’t seem very cautious.”Under the current Covid rules, individuals who test positive for the virus are required to self-isolate for at least five days and can face considerable fines for non-compliance.Regulations mandating the wearing of face masks in certain settings, however, along with guidance to work from home to contain the spread of the virus, ended in January.Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said the publication of the plan would be dependent on last-minute approval by the cabinet.Dr James Gill, an honorary clinical lecturer at Warwick Medical School, said: “Frankly I see no justifiable reason for the scrapping of this law, certainly not from the perspective of patients, nor from a business case either, as the Omicron variant is highly contagious.”Devolved nations will make their own decisions on whether to move at the same time as England, and cities like London, which still require face-coverings on public transport, will be allowed to continue to do so.Last month, Mr Johnson told the Commons that the government would replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, saying he expected “not to renew” the self-isolation rules after they expire on 24 March.The move to bring forward the date by a month will inevitably be viewed as an attempt to bolster his support among Conservative MPs, and was immediately welcomed by the former Brexit secretary Lord David Frost. “The PM’s plan to end all Covid restrictions a month early is the right thing do,” he said.The Liberal Democrats’ Layla Moran, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said the decision was “foolhardy”, saying: “As they have repeatedly done throughout this pandemic, this government is preparing to make a serious public health decision for short-term political expediency.“Ministers must not play fast and loose with people’s health in an attempt to meet political demands.” More

The emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 caused huge concern around the world when it was discovered in southern Africa in mid-November, not least because it was found to be highly transmissible and because the 32 mutations to its spike protein suggested it might be able to resist current vaccines.Prior to Christmas, UK prime minister Boris Johnson introduced a series of “Plan B” social restrictions to combat the threat posed by the strain, ordering people to work from home, wear masks in public places, present a Covid pass proving their vaccination status in exchange for entry to crowded public venues and to get a third booster jab as a matter of urgency.He declined to tighten the rules ahead of the festive season getting underway in earnest, a decision that allowed him to avoid a repeat of his notorious address of 19 December 2020, and continued to stick to his guns in the early weeks of January, despite total daily cases in England rocketing to a pandemic high of 218,724 on 4 January, according to the UK Health Security Agency, despite pressure growing from experts to take a tougher stance to support beleagured NHS staff.Having weathered that storm, the rate of Omicron infections began to fall, enabling the prime minister to repeal those restrictions on Wednesday 19 January, with working from home dropped immediately and masks and passes abandoned from Thursday 27 January.Taking time out from the firestorm still raging over the Downing Street “Partygate” scandal, Mr Johnson told the Commons that he also hopes to remove the requirement to self-isolate from 24 March, saying: “There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.“As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.”Changes had already been made to testing and self-isolation guidance in order to minimise staff absences and prevent a further major hit on the UK economy, a primary concern among Conservatives keen to avoid a repeat of the “pingdemic” experienced last summer at the hands of an overzealous NHS Test and Trace app. Responding, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of being “too distracted to do the job”.“The 438 deaths recorded yesterday are a solemn reminder that this pandemic is not over,” Sir Keir said.“We need to remain vigilant, learn the lessons from the government’s mistakes, with new variants highly likely we must have a robust plan to live well with Covid.”The leader of the opposition is right to be cautious.Daily case numbers may have fallen considerably from that early year peak but were still at almost 110,000 on the day of Mr Johnson’s announcement and members of the public are still being advised to exercise caution and get their boosters, which so far less than 64 per cent of the UK’s adult population has done, enthusiasm having apparently stalled.However, barring another extreme spike in cases, perhaps caused by the emergence of another new variant of the virus, we are unlikely to see another lockdown imposed on the British public for the time being, with the measure considered the most extreme available and a last restort.Lockdowns have proven unpopular with the public due to the mental and physical toll they take on individuals and because of the devastation they cause to British industry, hence the particular anger expressed by many at the idea that Mr Johnson and his aides were swilling wine at Downing Street and ignoring the rules while ordinary citizens dutifully complied.Shorter circuit-breaker lockdowns could still be a possibility in future should the circumstances change but it seems more likely that social restrictions will continue to be imposed in stages, according to necessity and in line with the data, the situation kept constantly under review and the steps imposed adjusted accordingly. Even before Omicron began to cast its sinister shadow across the globe, many Britons were already glancing anxiously towards the continent as Austria and the Netherlands reintroduced lockdowns in response to spiking cases of Covid in the autumn.The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it was “very worried” about the spread in Europe and warned 700,000 more deaths could be recorded by March unless urgent action was taken, bringing the total number of fatalities on the continent to 2.2 million since the pandemic began.Omicron variant shows just how ‘perilous’ Covid situation is, WHO saysPrior to the scare parked by Omicron, Mr Johnson’s government had been deeply reluctant to reimpose restrictions at all, despite consistently high case numbers.While the vaccines kept death rates low after the mass rollout began to have an effect in spring 2021, infection levels typically hovered around the 40,000-per-day mark from 19 July – “Freedom Day” – to the arrival of the new variant on these shores.Mr Johnson also appeared to be concerned that further restrictions might lead to social disorder, having seen anti-lockdown protests – some of them violent – erupt in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Croatia.Londoners were certainly unhappy about the initial return of the mask mandate, accusing the PM of hypocrisy for declining to wear one himself at several public engagements.However, in other quarters, there appeared to be a clear appetite for new restrictions even before Omicron, at least according to the polls.A survey by Savanta ComRes revealed that 45 per cent of adults would be in favour of a selective lockdown targeting only those who had declined to get their Covid jabs and therefore could pose an ongoing risk to others.But, until the fresh strain threw a fresh spanner into the works, there was a credible case for believing that the UK was in such a strong position that it could avoid the worst of the outbreak marauding across Europe.Although Britain’s infection rate has remained high for months, it has also been highly stable until recently, lingering at a seven-day average of around 600 daily cases per million people, whereas Austria and the Netherlands have suddenly spiked to 1,500 and 1,250 respectively from well below that starting point since the beginning of October.Part of the reason for this is that the UK was hit by the more infectious Alpha and Delta variants of the coronavirus sooner and was therefore able to tackle them ahead of its European neighbours and unlock earlier. 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The new chair of the NHS must get up to speed on social care, MPs have warned as they approved the banking chief’s appointment.The appointment of Richard Meddings as new chair of NHS England has been approved by the government’s Health Committee, following an interview on Tuesday.Mr Meddings, former chair of the UK subsidiary of Credit Suisse and TSB bank, has been chosen at the government’s preferred candidate.His appointment comes as care watchdog the Care Quality Commission has appointed another former finance chief, Ian Dilks, as its new chair. Mr Dilks is the senior independent director of Royal London Insurance and has a background working with major accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. The Health and Social Care Committee said in a report on Wednesday: “We recognise that Mr Meddings has an impressive professional background, but we were concerned about some of the answers he provided during the session, especially on social care. We approve the appointment of the candidate, although this was not a unanimous view across the Committee.”The report added: “We raised our concerns over Mr Meddings’ lack of specific experience of the health and social care sectors. Previous Chairs of NHS England have usually had experience working in health and social care, or in NHS Trusts.“Mr Meddings recognised his lack of direct experience but reasoned that the role was essentially a governance role. He also told us that he was keen to immerse himself in the issues to gain an understanding of the challenges the sector is facing.”In an answer to a questionnaire published by the committee describing his recruitment, Mr Meddings said: “I was approached by head hunters. I was initially apprehensive but it was explained that there was strong health knowledge and expertise around the board, and clearly in the senior management below board level, but the aim was to bring fresh insights, strong experience of board governance, digital and financial skills, and courage in adversity and strategic leadership.”During his reappointment hearing, Mr Meddings said he used private care in 2021 after being diagnosed with a DVT – a blood clot in a vein.However he stressed he was a user of the NHS and had private health insurance as part of the perks from his previous banking roles.He will be paid £63,000 per year for working two to three days a week. More

Face masks won’t be required from next week and work-from-home advice is ending immediately after the prime minister announced the end of plan B rules in England.The legal duty to self-isolate with Covid-19 will also lapse from 24 March, Mr Johnson said, “just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.”Face coverings will be scrapped in classrooms from this Thursday, with school communal areas to follow.The bonfire of Covid rules came after ONS data showed Covid-19 cases were falling in most parts of England and after government scientists judged the Omicron variant had “now peaked nationally”.But scrapping Covid measures “will do nothing to relieve the pressure” on hospitals and the virus hasn’t “magically disappeared,” nursing and NHS leaders warned.The NHS is still battling extreme pressures such as high levels of staff sickness, record-length delays in emergency care and a growing backlog that has left six million on waiting lists.The nation’s care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, expressed particular concern over emergency departments and ambulance services.Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said ministers needed to “be honest with the public that a decision to lift restrictions is a trade-off”.He said: “Covid-19 has not magically disappeared, and we are likely to have to learn to live alongside it for years to come. Lifting restrictions doesn’t mean a return to normality is inevitable.“We will have greater freedoms but the cost – at least in the short term – will be that more people are likely to get sick with Covid, and that the health service will continue to have to deal with the extra burdens that this creates.”Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said loosening restrictions “will do nothing to relieve the pressure on the NHS” and that ministers “will regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency”.“With so many Covid-19 patients still in hospital, it would be very premature to conclude this wave is over,” she said. “That is not what our members are telling us.”Latest NHS figures show there are 16,218 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals across England – down from 10 January when 17,120 were recorded in hospital. Meanwhile, admissions to hospitals in the northeast, Yorkshire and the northwest continued to rise this week. Aris Katzourakis, an expert virologist at the University of Oxford, said: “While there are some encouraging signs, it is not yet entirely clear that it is safe to do so right now without risking further resurgence of the virus.“It seems a premature decision based on where we are now with case numbers and the stresses on the NHS.”Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: “The UK will have a long backlog of consequences to address that have emerged from previous decision-making, but there may at least be a component of looking forward, rather than back.“This includes the huge waiting list for both urgent and routine healthcare, that could not be addressed before due to the consequences of ‘too much covid’.”The ONS data shows that one in 20 people in private households in England – about 3 million – is estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to 15 January, down from 3.7 million in the week to 6 January.In Scotland, around one in 20, or 236,000 people, is estimated to have had Covid-19 last week, down from 297,400.For Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is also one in 20, but the number of people testing positive is up slightly from 99,200 to 104,300, with the ONS describing the trend there as “uncertain”.Meanwhile, in Wales, the estimate is one in 25, or 112,100 people, down from 169,100. More

The emergence of the Omicron variant is causing concern around the world, not least because it is thought to be highly transmissible and because the 32 mutations of its spike protein suggest it might be able to resist current vaccines.The UK has recorded 246,780 confirmed cases of the strain so far and at least 75 deaths, prompting ongoing fears that more severe social restrictions could soon be imposed on the British public.Although many scientists believe the new variant is milder than previous mutations, it remains unclear how many of the record number of people infected will end up in hospital, severely ill or dying.Prior to Christmas, prime minister Boris Johnson said that no further restrictions would be introduced ahead of the holiday, explaining that “that people could go ahead with their plans”, a decision that allowed him to avoid a repeat of his notorious address of 19 December 2020, when he reluctantly imposed tough new measures at the last minute and dashed the festive hopes of millions.Since then, the UK has continued to experience extremely high levels of Covid infections across the festive period, with total daily cases in England rocketing to a pandemic high of 218,724 on 4 January, according to the UK Health Security Agency.But the government has so far stuck to its guns and refused to impose further Covid restrictions in England for now, with Mr Johnson insisting on Monday that the current “Plan B” restrictions in place remained the “right” course of action, adding: “The way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we’re on.“We’ll keep everything on the review course we keep all measures under review, but the mixture of things that we’re doing at the moment is I think, the right one.”That stance was supported by vaccines minister Maggie Throup the following morning, who told Sky News: “Plan B is working, as you can see from the number of hospitalisations – it’s far, far fewer than this time last year… It’s important that we follow the data.”The PM reiterated his hope that Britain would be able to “ride out” the assault from Omicron without further measures in a press conference from Downing Street on Tuesday evening, despite several NHS trusts reporting “critical incidents” of staff shortages. In Scotland, however, Nicola Sturgeon announced fresh restrictions on sporting events and large gatherings and cancelled Edinburgh’s annual Hogmanay street party prior to Christmas, having already asked Scots to keep household mixing to a minimum. Wales and Northern Ireland also imposed new curbs, closing nightclubs and limiting hospitality to the rule of six and returning to table service only. ‘Rule nothing out’In his video message from Downing Street on 21 December when he said the holiday season would be allowed to proceed unchecked, Mr Johnson said: “We can’t rule out any further measures after Christmas – and we’re going to keep a constant eye on the data, and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect public health.”He said ministers were monitoring the data “hour by hour” and that the arguments for taking further action were “very, very finely balanced”.“Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS,” he added. “We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.”The prime minister is understood to have been waiting for more data on the variant to become available before he made a decision, a stance that saw him accused of “dithering” by scientists and his political opponents.By contrast, London mayor Sadiq Khan had been decisive when he declared a major incident over the extent of the outbreak in the capital on 18 December, while NHS England announced a return to its highest level of emergency preparedness, level four national incident, meaning that the health service’s response will be coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts. Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance is said to have led the call for fresh measures to drive down infection rates and ease the pressure on the NHS, but these have so far been resisted by senior Cabinet ministers loath to further jeopardise the economy and constrain individual freedom without more data to justify it.Sir Patrick’s fellow advisers have been equally outspoken, with Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warning that Omicron is “coming at us like an express train” and insisting that the government must give the public a “good, clear message” about how “serious the crisis is”.The prospect of introducing a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown has been mooted – and appears to be broadly popular with the public – with plans made available to ministers for consideration and apparently including a ban on meeting others indoors except for work purposes and limiting pubs and restaurants to outdoor service only. But it is clear the PM hopes the take up of booster vaccines, along with the partial “Plan B” restrictions recently introduced, will be enough to see off the threat.As part of those measures, Britons are currently again being ordered to wear face masks in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship and on public transport and to work from home order where possible.The government has further revised its approach to vaccine booster jabs, planning to make them available to all over-18s by the end of December and halving the amount of time between second and third injections from six months to three, all in the hope of staving off the feared “tidal wave” of infections we are already beginning to see. According to official data, almost 34.4m people have received a booster jab to date. Some form of “Plan C” – a circuit-breaker, or tighter restrictions – could be necessary if Omicron starts to disrupt the NHS but there is clearly little political appetite for a fourth national lockdown.But Sage advisers remain unambiguous in calling for stricter curbs, with the influential Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London openly entertaining the possibility for several weeks.The bigger pictureEven before Omicron began to cast its sinister shadow across the globe, many Britons were already glancing anxiously towards the continent as Austria and the Netherlands reintroduced lockdowns in response to spiking cases of Covid-19.The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it was “very worried” about the spread in Europe and warned 700,000 more deaths could be recorded by March unless urgent action is taken, bringing the total to 2.2 million since the pandemic began.Omicron variant shows just how ‘perilous’ Covid situation is, WHO saysPrior to the latest worrying developments sparked by Omicron, Mr Johnson’s government had been deeply reluctant to reimpose restrictions at all, despite consistently high case numbers.While the vaccines have consistently kept death rates low since the spring, infection levels have remained consistently high, typically hovering around the 40,000-per-day mark but in recent days have been more than double that.Mr Johnson may also be concerned that further restrictions might lead to social disorder, having seen anti-lockdown protests – some of them violent – erupt in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Croatia.Londoners were certainly unhappy about the initial return of the mask mandate, accusing the PM of hypocrisy for declining to wear one himself at several public engagements.However, in other quarters, there appeared to be a clear appetite for new restrictions even before Omicron, at least according to the polls.A survey by Savanta ComRes revealed that 45 per cent of adults would be in favour of a selective lockdown targeting only those who had declined to get their Covid jabs and therefore could pose an ongoing risk to others.But, until Omicron threw a fresh spanner into the works, there was a credible case for believing that the UK was in such a strong position that it could avoid the worst of the outbreak marauding across Europe.Although Britain’s infection rate has remained high for months, it has also been highly stable until recently, lingering at a seven-day average of around 600 daily cases per million people, whereas Austria and the Netherlands have suddenly spiked to 1,500 and 1,250 respectively from well below that starting point since the beginning of October.Part of the reason for this is that the UK was hit by the more infectious Alpha and Delta variants of the coronavirus sooner and was therefore able to tackle them ahead of its European neighbours and unlock earlier. More

The emergence of the Omicron variant is causing concern around the world, not least because it is thought to be highly transmissible and because the 32 mutations of its spike protein suggest it might be able to resist current vaccines.The UK has recorded 246,780 confirmed cases of the strain so far and at least 75 deaths, prompting ongoing fears that more severe social restrictions could soon be imposed on the British public.Although many scientists believe the new variant is milder than previous mutations, it remains unclear how many of the record number of people infected will end up in hospital, severely ill or dying.Prior to Christmas, prime minister Boris Johnson said that no further restrictions would be introduced ahead of the holiday, explaining that “that people could go ahead with their plans”, a decision that allowed him to avoid a repeat of his notorious address of 19 December 2020, when he reluctantly imposed tough new measures at the last minute and dashed the festive hopes of millions.Since then, the UK has continued to experience extremely high levels of Covid infections across the festive period, with total daily cases in England rocketing to a pandemic high of 162,572 on New Year’s Day, according to the UK Health Security Agency.But the government has so far stuck to its guns and refused to impose further Covid restrictions in England for now, with Mr Johnson most recently insisting on 3 January that the current “Plan B” restrictions in place remained the “right” course of action, adding: “The way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we’re on.“We’ll keep everything on the review course we keep all measures under review, but the mixture of things that we’re doing at the moment is I think, the right one.”That stance was supported by vaccines minister Maggie Throup the following morning, who told Sky News: “Plan B is working, as you can see from the number of hospitalisations – it’s far, far fewer than this time last year… it’s important that we follow the data.”In Scotland, however, Nicola Sturgeon announced fresh restrictions on sporting events and large gatherings and cancelled Edinburgh’s annual Hogmanay street party prior to Christmas, having already asked Scots to keep household mixing to a minimum. Wales and Northern Ireland also imposed new curbs, closing nightclubs and limiting hospitality to the rule of six and returning to table service only. ‘Rule nothing out’In his video message from Downing Street on 21 December when he said the holiday season would be allowed to proceed unchecked, Mr Johnson said: “We can’t rule out any further measures after Christmas – and we’re going to keep a constant eye on the data, and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect public health.”He said ministers were monitoring the data “hour by hour” and that the arguments for taking further action were “very, very finely balanced”.“Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS,” he added. “We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.”The prime minister is understood to have been waiting for more data on the variant to become available before he made a decision, a stance that saw him accused of “dithering” by scientists and his political opponents.By contrast, London mayor Sadiq Khan had been decisive when he declared a major incident over the extent of the outbreak in the capital on 18 December, while NHS England announced a return to its highest level of emergency preparedness, level four national incident, meaning that the health service’s response will be coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts. Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance is said to have led the call for fresh measures to drive down infection rates and ease the pressure on the NHS, but these have so far been resisted by senior Cabinet ministers loath to further jeopardise the economy and constrain individual freedom without more data to justify it.Sir Patrick’s fellow advisers have been equally outspoken, with Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warning that Omicron is “coming at us like an express train” and insisting that the government must give the public a “good, clear message” about how “serious the crisis is”.The prospect of introducing a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown has been mooted – and appears to be broadly popular with the public – with plans made available to ministers for consideration and apparently including a ban on meeting others indoors except for work purposes and limiting pubs and restaurants to outdoor service only. But it is clear the PM hopes the take up of booster vaccines, along with the partial “Plan B” restrictions recently introduced, will be enough to see off the threat.As part of those measures, Britons are currently again being ordered to wear face masks in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship and on public transport and to work from home order where possible.The government has further revised its approach to vaccine booster jabs, planning to make them available to all over-18s by the end of December and halving the amount of time between second and third injections from six months to three, all in the hope of staving off the feared “tidal wave” of infections we are already beginning to see. According to official data, more than 34.2m people have received a booster jab to date. Some form of “Plan C” – a circuit-breaker, or tighter restrictions – could be necessary if Omicron starts to disrupt the NHS, with reports already emerging of critical incidents at NHS trusts caused by “extreme and unprecedented” staff shortages, but there is clearly little political appetite for any kind of fourth national lockdown.But Sage advisers remain unambiguous in calling for stricter curbs, with the influential Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London openly entertaining the possibility for several weeks.The bigger pictureEven before Omicron began to cast its sinister shadow across the globe, many Britons were already glancing anxiously towards the continent as Austria and the Netherlands reintroduced lockdowns in response to spiking cases of Covid-19.The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it was “very worried” about the spread in Europe and warned 700,000 more deaths could be recorded by March unless urgent action is taken, bringing the total to 2.2 million since the pandemic began.Omicron variant shows just how ‘perilous’ Covid situation is, WHO saysPrior to the latest worrying developments sparked by Omicron, Mr Johnson’s government had been deeply reluctant to reimpose restrictions at all, despite consistently high case numbers.While the vaccines have consistently kept death rates low since the spring, infection levels have remained consistently high, typically hovering around the 40,000-per-day mark but in recent days have been more than double that.Mr Johnson may also be concerned that further restrictions might lead to social disorder, having seen anti-lockdown protests – some of them violent – erupt in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Croatia.Londoners were certainly unhappy about the initial return of the mask mandate, accusing the PM of hypocrisy for declining to wear one himself at several public engagements.However, in other quarters, there appeared to be a clear appetite for new restrictions even before Omicron, at least according to the polls.A survey by Savanta ComRes revealed that 45 per cent of adults would be in favour of a selective lockdown targeting only those who had declined to get their Covid jabs and therefore could pose an ongoing risk to others.But, until Omicron threw a fresh spanner into the works, there was a credible case for believing that the UK was in such a strong position that it could avoid the worst of the outbreak marauding across Europe.Although Britain’s infection rate has remained high for months, it has also been highly stable until recently, lingering at a seven-day average of around 600 daily cases per million people, whereas Austria and the Netherlands have suddenly spiked to 1,500 and 1,250 respectively from well below that starting point since the beginning of October.Part of the reason for this is that the UK was hit by the more infectious Alpha and Delta variants of the coronavirus sooner and was therefore able to tackle them ahead of its European neighbours and unlock earlier. More

The emergence of the Omicron variant is causing concern around the world, not least because it is thought to be highly transmissible and because the 32 mutations of its spike protein suggest it might be able to resist current vaccines.The UK has recorded more than 177,000 confirmed cases of the strain so far and at least 49 deaths, prompting fresh fears that more severe social restrictions could soon be imposed on the British public.Although many scientists believe the new variant is milder than previous mutations, it remains unclear how many of the record number of people infected will end up in hospital, severely ill or dying.Prior to Christmas, prime minister Boris Johnson said that no further restrictions would be introduced ahead of the holiday, explaining that “that people could go ahead with their plans”, a decision that allowed him to avoid a repeat of his notorious address of 19 December 2020, when he reluctantly imposed tough new measures at the last minute and dashed the festive hopes of millions.He spoke on the same day that chancellor Rishi Sunak announced £1bn in support for the hospitality industry after customers cancelled reservations en masse in response to the latest twist in the pandemic. Since then, the government has ruled out the possibility of imposing further Covid restrictions in England before the new year. On Monday 27 December, health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed that the prime minister had decided not to bring in any new measures this week, but said that ministers would continue to monitor the data carefully to determine whether more controls would be needed in January. He added that Omicron was now responsible for 90 per cent of new cases across the UK. Meanwhile, in Scotland Nicola Sturgeon announced fresh restrictions on sporting events and large gatherings and cancelled Edinburgh’s annual Hogmanay street party, having already asked Scots to keep household mixing to a minimum over the holidays. Wales and Northern Ireland have also imposed new curbs, closing nightclubs and limiting hospitality to the rule of six and returning to table service only. ‘Rule nothing out’In his video message from Downing Street on 21 December, Mr Johnson said: “We can’t rule out any further measures after Christmas – and we’re going to keep a constant eye on the data, and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect public health.”The announcement came a day after he told reporters that the government was still deciding whether or not to impose further additional measures.He said ministers were monitoring the data “hour by hour” and that the arguments for taking further action were “very, very finely balanced”.“Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS,” he added. “We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.”The prime minister is understood to have been waiting for more data on the variant to become available before he made a decision, a stance that saw him accused of “dithering” by scientists and his political opponents.By contrast, London mayor Sadiq Khan was decisive when he declared a major incident over the extent of the outbreak in the capital on 18 December, while NHS England announced a return to its highest level of emergency preparedness, level four national incident, meaning that the health service’s response will be coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts. Overall, the UK added another 129,471 infections in 24 hours on Tuesday, a record high for this pandemic. That compares to about 27,000 cases this time last year.Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance is said to have led the call for fresh measures to drive down infection rates and ease the pressure on the NHS, but these have so far been resisted by senior Cabinet ministers loathe to further jeopardise the economy and constrain individual freedom without more data to justify it.Sir Patrick’s fellow advisers have been equally outspoken, with Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warning that Omicron is “coming at us like an express train” and insisting that the government must give the public a “good, clear message” about how “serious the crisis is”.The prospect of introducing a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown after Christmas has been mooted – and appears to be broadly popular with the public – with plans made available to ministers for consideration and apparently including a ban on meeting others indoors except for work purposes and limiting pubs and restaurants to outdoor service only. It is clear the PM hopes the take up of booster vaccines, along with the partial “Plan B” restrictions recently introduced, will be enough to see off the threat.As part of those measures, Britons are currently again being ordered to wear face masks in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship and on public transport, to work from home order where possible.The government has further revised its approach to vaccine booster jabs, planning to make them available to all over-18s by the end of December and halving the amount of time between second and third injections from six months to three, all in the hope of staving off the feared “tidal wave” of infections we are already beginning to see. According to government data, nearly 32,700,000 people have received a booster jab to date. Some form of “Plan C” – a circuit-breaker, or tighter restrictions – could be necessary if Omicron starts to disrupt the NHS over the festive season, but there is little political appetite for any kind of fourth national lockdown.But Sage advisers remain unambiguous in calling for stricter curbs, with the influential Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London openly entertaining the possibility for several weeks.The bigger pictureEven before Omicron began to cast its sinister shadow across the globe, many Britons were already glancing anxiously towards the continent as Austria and the Netherlands reintroduced lockdowns in response to spiking cases of Covid-19.The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it was “very worried” about the spread in Europe and warned 700,000 more deaths could be recorded by March unless urgent action is taken, bringing the total to 2.2 million since the pandemic began.Omicron variant shows just how ‘perilous’ Covid situation is, WHO saysPrior to the latest worrying developments sparked by omicon, Mr Johnson’s government had been deeply reluctant to reimpose restrictions at all, despite consistently high case numbers.While the vaccines have consistently kept death rates low since the spring, infection levels have remained consistently high, typically hovering around the 40,000-per-day mark but in recent days have been more than double that.Mr Johnson may also be concerned that further restrictions might lead to social disorder, having seen anti-lockdown protests – some of them violent – erupt in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Croatia.Londoners were certainly unhappy about the initial return of the mask mandate, accusing the PM of hypocrisy for declining to wear one himself at several public engagements.However, in other quarters, there appeared to be a clear appetite for new restrictions even before Omicron, at least according to the polls.A recent survey of 900 managers and 1,200 employees carried out by Hack Future Lab found 53 per cent would welcome a “festive lockdown” for the sake of their own well-being after struggling to come to terms with the return to ordinary working conditions, often finding themselves forced to take on extra tasks to cover for absent colleagues.Another poll by Savanta ComRes revealed 45 per cent of adults would be in favour of a selective lockdown targeting only those who had declined to get their Covid jabs and therefore could pose an ongoing risk to others.But, until Omicron threw a fresh spanner into the works, there was a credible case for believing that the UK was in such a strong position that it could avoid the worst of the outbreak marauding across Europe.Although Britain’s infection rate has remained high for months, it has also been highly stable until recently, lingering at a seven-day average of around 600 daily cases per million people, whereas Austria and the Netherlands have suddenly spiked to 1,500 and 1,250 respectively from well below that starting point since the beginning of October.Part of the reason for this is that the UK was hit by the more infectious Alpha and Delta variants of the coronavirus sooner and was therefore able to tackle them ahead of its European neighbours and unlock earlier. 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A leading virologist has warned that the UK’s mismatched Covid restrictions risk spreading the virus further, after the government announced there will be no new measures in England before the new year.University of Brighton microbiology lecturer Dr Sarah Pitt said it did not make sense for the four nations to have different coronavirus rules as the Omicron variant infects record numbers of people every day.She told LBC Radio: “If people can’t go to a New Year’s Eve party in Wales or Scotland, they’ll just tip over the borders into England, won’t they, thus potentially taking the virus and spreading it … and then taking it back home.“So it makes sense to have one set of measures across the whole country and I think it does make sense to have some measures to try and stop the spread of the virus at this point.”She added: “I know personally more people who’ve been off sick with Covid in the last month than the whole of the pandemic put together.“So although there is a balance between the economy and health, they’re not mutually exclusive – it’s not one or the other.“We’ve actually got to take the virus seriously, and I’m not talking about full lockdowns, I’m just talking about a few measures for some things to just try and stop the spread of this really horrible, nasty virus, just at this moment.”On Monday, New Year’s parties were given the green light as ministers announced there will be no new coronavirus restrictions imposed before the end of 2021.The decision announced by Sajid Javid, the health secretary, leaves England out of step with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have all brought in new post-Christmas controls.Environment Secretary George Eustice said that the early evidence suggested Omicron was not leading to a big increase in hospital admissions, as happened in previous waves.But some scientists have expressed concern about the lack of new restrictions following the surge in Covid cases.Government figures showed there were a record 113,628 new Covid cases in England on Christmas Day, with 1,281 new Covid-19 hospital admissions – up 74 per cent week on week and the highest number since 16 February.Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, suggested people with Covid should be allowed to “go about their normal lives” as they would with a common cold.Asked on BBC Breakfast about NHS staff shortages due to workers having to isolate, he said: “This is a disease that’s not going away, the infection is not going away, although we’re not going to see as severe disease for much longer.“Ultimately, we’re going to have to let people who are positive with Covid go about their normal lives as they would do with any other cold. And so, at some point, we’ve got to relax this.“If the self-isolation rules are what’s making the pain associated with Covid, then we need to do that perhaps sooner rather than later. Maybe not quite just yet.” More