Boris Johnson has delayed a decision regarding whether new Covid curbs are required until after half term in the hope that the school holiday will stop the rise in cases.
According to government sources, ministers were surprised by the rapid spread the virus among schoolchildren. These infection rates are up ten times greater than in the wider population.
A source said ministers hoped that next week’s half-term holiday in England would break the increase in daily infections, which rose to more than 50,000 yesterday for the first time since July.
The Prime Minister yesterday said that he was sticking with the existing approach for now, despite a growing clamour from the medical profession to move to the Government’s ‘Plan B’.
Plan B would see the return to mandatory face masks, controversial vaccine passports, and the revival or work from home advice.
Boris Johnson (pictured in Northern Ireland yesterday), delayed a decision about whether new Covid curbs were needed until after half-term, in the hope that the school break would stop the rise in cases
Mr Johnson acknowledged that cases are ‘high’ but said they remained ‘within the parameters’ predicted by Government scientists when legal Covid restrictions were ended in July.
Speaking during a visit to Northern Ireland yesterday, he said Britain was ‘incomparably better’ placed than last year as it headed into the winter as a result of the vaccination programme.
Rejecting calls to change approach, he added: ‘We are sticking with the plan.’ Privately, ministers are alarmed by the continued surge in cases, and the steady rise in hospitalisations and deaths which has followed.
Currently, the majority of cases are among younger age groups. There are concerns that older people may succumb to the virus as vaccine effectiveness declines, leading to an increase in hospitalisations.
Sajid Javid, Health Minister (pictured), advised people to modify their behaviours to stop the spread of infections. He advised them to meet outside and make sure they open windows when possible.
A Government source said the age split in recent Covid infections was ‘incredibly stark’, with secondary school children now ten times more likely to contract the virus than adults aged 50 to 70.
A second source said: ‘We are focused on doing everything we can to avoid having to implement Plan B.
‘Given the prevalence among children, there is a hope that half-term will reverse the very concerning rises we have seen recently.
‘Certainly nothing will happen before we see what effect that has had on numbers.’
Downing Street vehemently denied reports yesterday that officials are already working on a ‘Plan C’, which would involve limiting household contacts by law.
But the former Tory health minister Steve Brine said there was already a ‘depressingly familiar drumbeat on moving towards plan B and plan B+, and plan C’.
Sajid Javid, Health Minister, has advised people to modify their behavior to prevent the spread of infections. He advised them to meet outside and make sure they open windows when possible.
A source said ministers hoped that next week’s half-term holiday in England would break the increase in daily infections, which rose to more than 50,000 yesterday for the first time since July
New advice on ‘the need to behave more cautiously’ is the first step in Plan B, but No 10 yesterday denied that the contingency plans were already under way.
Yesterday’s figures showed that the number of patients admitted to hospital with Covid rose to more than 8,000 for the first time in over a month. The PM’s official spokesman acknowledged that the NHS is facing a ‘challenging winter’. He said that there were still 6,000 hospital beds available.
Downing Street yesterday denied that Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientist Sir Patrick Vallance had made a ‘formal request’ to move to Plan B. But medical lobby groups came together to call for immediate action. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association, said the refusal to introduce supplementary measures – including Covid passports, mask-wearing in crowded public spaces and a return to working from home – amounted to ‘wilful negligence’.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health trusts, said it was ‘better to act now, rather than regret it later’.