Boris Johnson said that he was ‘pretty much to completely confident’ this Christmas will be better than the one last year during Saturday’s Covid press conference.
While refusing to exclude another holiday lockdown, the prime minister spoke out as he answered questions from journalists about the Omicron super-mutant variant discovered in Britain.
The strain – designated a ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organisation on Friday – has been detected in Nottingham and Brentwood in Essex, in two people who had recently returned from southern Africa.
The’monster” variant of the virus could cause a new lockdown in the United States. It could be able to dodge vaccines and be more efficient at reinfecting people.
Johnson stated that Downing Street is in a good position due to speedy vaccine rollouts and another booster rollout. I believe I will stick to what I have used before. This formula has been very successful for me. I am confident, to absolute certainty, this Christmas will be better than the last.
Later, he backed his comments up by saying that he believed it would be significantly better than last year.
Boris Johnson claimed he’s ‘pretty much to absolutely certain’ that this Christmas will prove better than previous Christmas during a Covid briefing held at Downing Street.
He made this comment as he refrained from imposing a lockdown on the festive season as he dealt with questions from journalists about the Omicron variant discovered in Britain. (Pictured by Boris at Saturday’s Covid briefing).
Omicron cases have been found in Belgium, South Africa and Botswana. The variant may have arrived in the Netherlands on yesterday, but it’s not known. However, Dutch authorities are currently sequencing the passengers’ DNA. It is also possible that individual cases may be being sequenced by authorities in Australia, Germany, and Czech Republic.
Sajid Javid today announced that Britain sequenced two Omicron cases in Nottingham and Chelmsford.
Along with Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the Conservative leader was present.
Sir Patrick warned of another lockdown and said that there is not enough information in the UK to allow for modelling.
Expert said there are ‘patchwork of rapidly growing epidemics’.
He said, “We’ll get more information regarding transmissibility.” We’ll get additional information about vaccines’ effectiveness in protecting against the disease. It will take time.
“We don’t have the resources to go further.”
“But, if it is very transmissible or does cause huge…” [vaccine]Escape is possible, but we don’t know how to do that at this time.
“We have to obtain that information.
Johnson encouraged people to have their booster shots to maintain immunity.
He said, “No matter the effect of this variant, if your immunity is strong, and especially if it’s boostered, then you are likely to have stronger protection.”
“So get your booster.
Following overnight genome sequencing, both the UK Health Security Agency and UK Health Security Agency have confirmed these cases.
They were taken into isolation and tested in the areas they believed to be infectious.
Travel restrictions will be in place for Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia starting Sunday. They will also join South Africa, five neighbouring countries, and the other nations listed on England’s red-list.
Johnson stated, “We must take specific and proportionate actions now to protect ourselves while we learn more.
Today saw another 39,567 Covid deaths and 131 Covid cases in the UK. Department of Health officials posted nearly 40,000 daily infections – down 3.36 per cent from 40,941 last Saturday – after Sajid Javid announced that two cases of the ‘monstrous’ new Covid variant were detected. Also, the number of Covid-positive people has fallen 12.7 percentage from 150 in last week to 28,740.
“First, we must slow down seeding of this variant in the country. We need to buy some time for our scientists understand what we’re doing and to be able to get more people vaccinated and, above all, to boost more people.
However, the Prime Minister declared that border controls can only’minimize and delay’ the arrival of new variants, which means all people who are suspected of having the new variant should be isolated for at least 10 days.
Johnson added that they would ask you all to limit the spread by tightening rules regarding facecovers on public transport and in shops.
Although the efficacy of Omicron vaccines is not known, Johnson stated that there were ‘good grounds to believe they would provide at least some protection.
He stated that he was going to increase the booster campaign by asking the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to give boosters to ‘as broad a group of people as possible, as well as reducing gaps between boosters and second doses.