According to reports, ministers have rejected regional lockdowns for Omicron coronavirus variant control. This could mean that Britain might pay the cost of some Londoners being not jabbled.
The Times reports that a return of regional restrictions like tiers (which were initially credited with slowing down the virus but eventually failed to prevent a third-level national lockdown) will not happen.
According to a government source, the newspaper was not informed that they were considering regional restrictions. This isn’t on the table.
Another source said that regional curbs are difficult to comprehend due to the many rules. One set of rules should be used for all citizens. It is simpler for them to comprehend.
The move could result in regulations being imposed on parts of the UK with comparatively low hospital admissions to areas such as London, where medics fear that rate could increase in the coming weeks due to a lag between people getting infected and becoming severely ill.
According to the latest statistics, 374 patients were taken to the capital’s hospitals on Boxing Day. This is close enough that it could be triggered by a government intervention.
London is also home to the highest vaccination rates in the country. This makes it vulnerable to an increase in serious infections.
One of these restrictions could be restored is the Rule Of Six. This limits the amount of people that a person can meet up with.
The number of Covid cases in Britain reached a new high Tuesday, even though there was no data from Scotland or Northern Ireland. This is despite calls for New Year’s Eve celebrations to be sensible.
UK Health Security Agency chiefs recorded 129.471 positive tests within the last 24 hour, an increase of 43 percent from last week’s UK-wide number of 90.629.
The tally does not include daily infections data for England. However, there was a comparable increase in the number of cases and backlog numbers for Wales. None of the two other UK countries have yet to contribute their data to Britain’s official count.
The exact extent of Britain’s Omicron-fueled outbreak remains unclear due to statistical recording delays during the holiday period. Tomorrow, Scotland and Northern Ireland will publish data for five days. This could further skew overall virus numbers.
The Christmas reporting blackouts also have distorted death figures with 18 people being killed today, all in England. Expect unusually high death tolls towards the end this week. There have not been any testing results released yet for the period after Christmas, so it is impossible to determine if England’s increase in fatalities was due to increased swabbing rates.
During the holiday season, vital hospitalisation statistics were kept current in England. This week, similar figures across the UK are expected.
Boxing Day saw 1,374 coronavirus patients admitted to hospital wards, an increase of nearly 50% from the previous Sunday. The death rate was England’s highest since February in the darkest days after the nation’s disastrous second wave.
A senior official in the health sector warned against misinterpreting figures and cautioned hospitals about recording more Omicron-related cases.
Gillian Keegan (No10’s Health Minister) said it as a result. She encouraged people to have fun in 2022 and suggested taking steps to reduce their risk of contracting the virus.
She advised people to take lateral flow tests before hitting the town and consider having parties outdoors, with temperatures expected to hit the mid teens Celsius in parts of the UK. However, rapid tests from the Government’s website were unavailable for home delivery for the second day running today — at least the sixth time the swabs have run out since the start of December.
The message came as a leading vaccines expert backed Boris Johnson’s refusal to toughen England’s Covid restrictions to bring them into line with the other Home Nations, saying that mass deaths and hospitalisations from the deadly disease are ‘history’.
Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the Vaccines Taskforce, said the public had been ‘pretty responsible’ in its response to the spread of the Omicron variant.
However, Mr Johnson’s decision not to follow Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in having stricter Covid measures in place prompted a backlash from some medics — while his own backbenchers welcomed the move.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data showed 129,471 people tested positive in England over the last 24 hours, up 43 per cent on last week’s figure of 90,629 — which included case numbers for the other home nations as well
Reporting blips in the Christmas period also affected daily death statistics, confusing the real state of current Covid outbreak
According to reports, ministers will be closely monitoring Omicron London admissions. Any breach exceeding 400 is likely to result in further national restrictions. Boxing Day saw 374 admissions to London, an increase of 73% over the previous week.
According to UK Government statistics, 1.5 million Covid tests are performed each day. The number of swabs has increased dramatically since Omicron was first created.
Another day of chaos caused by coronavirus
- After England was declared the country that could party, Nicola Sturgeon’s crackdown on hospitality and Mark Drakeford’s ban on alcohol in England left it vulnerable to invasion by Welsh and Scotland bordering England.
- Britain was asked to reduce its Covid quarantine to five days and align its isolation rules with those of the USA.
- Experts were critical of Boris Johnson’s refusal to cancel New Years Eve and to maintain his nerve, leaving England alone.
- Official figures reveal dozens of pregnant women and new mothers are fighting for their lives against Covid in intensive care units.
- Across the channel, France reported a record high of 179,807 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period on Tuesday, by far the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic.
Speaking to broadcasters about New Year celebrations on Tuesday afternoon, Care Minister Ms Keegan said: ‘We have always said ”act cautiously” since this new variant came among us.
It is extremely contagious, and most people know of people who have contracted it over Christmas.
Be careful and take a Lateral Flow Test, (LFT), before you head out. You should be in well-ventilated places – There have been outdoor parties where people have taken things out.
“Just be aware, but don’t forget to enjoy your life – but with caution.”
Today’s UKHSA data shows that the UK has seen its highest daily case level in over a decade.
These figures may be artificially high due to a testing blitz after mass socializing on Christmas Day. However, it’s impossible to know because UK testing data only covers December 23.
According to the NHS England data, Boxing Day had 1,440 hospitalizations per day.
However, they remain significantly below the level of new patient admissions at the height of the pandemic in the last year. New patients per day reached 3967 as of January 1.
The number of Covid positive patients in England increased by over 1,000 per day from 8,474 on December 28 to 9,546. This number was 38% higher than the previous week.
Ministry officials are likely to closely monitor Omicron Hotspot London admissions, and any breach exceeding 400 will trigger new restrictions throughout the nation.
According to data, 374 more people entered the capital city on Boxing Day than the previous week. This is an increase of 73%.
Johnson is currently at Chequers Country Retreat and left it up to Sajid Javid, Health Secretary, to make the announcement. However, he tweeted advice for Brits to be cautious in the new year.
“The minister of health has received advice and reviewed the data. Sir John stated that his decision on where the NHS should be in the following days is likely to be correct.
“There is a lot of awareness that there are many people in this country who recognize the danger of the large-scale spread of disease. In the UK and England specifically, people have been responsible for not going out, spending lots of time with the virus, and trying to stay home.
He added: ‘The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago – intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely – that is now history in my view and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue.’
Tory MPs have also welcomed the decision of the PM not to follow in the footsteps of other home countries in placing harsher Covid limitations ahead of the start of the New Year. This was despite being at odds with him.
After introducing new nightpot-checking and mask-wearing guidelines, he was confronted with a revolt of more than 100.
Tory Mark Francois said to GB News that it was remarkable how a backbench revolt of 101 MPs can focus minds. Let’s not get churlish. This is the right decision. Well done, Prime Minister.
“We ask people to use their commonsense – we are being conservatives.” We believe in the British people’s sense of humor.
According to data from the UK Health Security Agency, Omicron accounts for 92% of all England cases. Graph showing: Omicron is a more common variant than Delta, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of Omicron being present in cases.
Omicron cases rose fastest in London before the rest of England caught up. Figure 1: Over time, the graph illustrates how many Omicron cases have been confirmed in laboratory tests across England.
The Sanger Institute is one of the largest national variant-tracking labs. It has data that shows how England became dominant within weeks of detecting the first ultra-transmissible case.
According to UKHSA, up to 40% of Omicron-related patients are not vaccinated. This doesn’t mean that current vaccines do not work. However, the vast majority of patients who were hospitalised with Omicron had their jabs. Instead, it offers even more evidence of how effective jabs are — even in the face of Omicron. The vast majority of over-18 eligible people in Britain have been vaccinated. This means that those who were vaccinated are a larger proportion of the total population. The graph shows separate UKHSA data, taken from November. It shows that adults who have not been vaccinated are eight times more likely than those who were given two doses.
The most up-to-date figures reveal there were 842 Covid patients in intensive care on ventilators – the lowest level in two months
Professor Sir John Bell (left), regius doctor of medicine at Oxford University. He was also a member on the Vaccines Taskforce. Gillian Keegan (right), a professor of medicine at Oxford University, said that while people should enjoy 2022 and take measures to prevent them from contracting the Omicron variant, they must also be responsible for their own health.
Johnson is currently at Chequers Country Retreat. He left it up to Sajid Javid, Health Secretary, to make the announcement. However, he tweeted cautionary advice for Brits at the beginning of the year.
Brendan Clarke Smith, Bassetlaw MP added that it was about trusting individuals to make decisions regarding their lives and use common sense.
Other scientists, however, disagreed with Sir John’s laissez-faire rules.
University of Brighton Viologist Dr Sarah Pitt suggested a number of measures to stop the spread of Omicron.
LBC was informed by a microbiology lecturer that the “serious infectious virus” is sending some people to hospital and others dying.
“I personally know more people with Covid who have been sick in the past month than all of the pandemic,” she stated.
“So even though there’s a balance between health and economy, it’s not mutually exclusive.
New rules were enacted yesterday that closed nightclubs in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Social distancing was reinstated and the rule number six was reintroduced to pubs and restaurants.
If cases keep rising, these restrictions may be extended to England.
Businesses are furious at the new Covid restrictions on hospitality by devolved government governments, which have disrupted plans to celebrate December 31.
In a further sign that the Omicron variant appears to result in less severe disease, there were 8,474 patients in hospital with Covid yesterday compared with 19,277 on the same day last year.
The increase is nearly 1000 per day and the most significant since March 5. However, health officials say that there are no reports of patients who require ventilators as often as during the peak of last winter.
The most up-to-date figures reveal there were 842 Covid patients in intensive care on ventilators – the lowest level in two months.
George Eustice Environment Secretary said that Government officials are monitoring the Covid hospital admissions after the ministers decided not to place any restrictions on England’s new year.
Although Mr Eustice admitted that Omicron’s infection rate was increasing, he said it wasn’t causing the same number of hospital admissions like previous waves.
According to him, there is encouraging evidence from South Africa showing that hospitalisations are lower and the length of stay at hospital for those who do need it is less than previous versions.
“At this time, we do not believe that any additional interventions are warranted beyond the ones we’ve already made.”
“But we must keep this under close scrutiny, as if we start to notice a significant increase in hospitalisations we will need to take further action.”
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said Covid will eventually be regarded as a cause of the common cold and will not warrant the reporting of daily case numbers.
BBC Breakfast, said he: “Covid is just one virus in a family coronaviruses. And the other coronaviruses tend to throw off new variants usually every year. That’s almost certain what’s going on with Covid. It will effectively become another reason for the common cold.
“We are not going to continue reporting daily on all cases of common colds going forward. Covid is an example.
“So, personally, it seems unlikely that we will do that while we’re still dealing with Omicron. But once Easter is over, maybe then we can start looking at scaling back depending on what the disease at that point.
Covid case numbers – which were updated for the first time since Christmas Eve – reveal 98,515 people in England tested positive yesterday.
It is almost four times more than 25,619 people tested positive last year, and a significant decrease from the 113.628 Christmas Day cases in England.
This is lower than the Boxing Day 103 558 reported cases. This promising data highlights the effectiveness of the vaccine against severe illnesses and also the increasing evidence that Omicron may be a milder version.
A further 143 people in England died after testing positive for Covid yesterday – down 42 per cent on the 246 people who were reported to have died the same day last year.
Yesterday’s number could have been skewed due to a record lag. There were no deaths on Christmas Day, and only three on Boxing Day.
Meanwhile data for London – which No10 has been watching closely – reveals there were 364 Covid hospital admissions across the capital on Christmas Day.
Although this is an improvement on the 278 hospitals that were reported on Christmas Eve it still falls below the 400 admissions daily thought to be Government’s threshold for applying new restrictions.
Although Covid admissions are not on the rise, hospital officials said it wasn’t a ‘precipitately’ increase. However, they cautioned that it’s still too early to dismiss any concerns.
Chris Hopson is the chief executive of NHS Providers. He stated that trust leaders closely monitor their hospital admissions data.
“Talking with chief executives this morning, it seems that admissions are increasing but not rapidly. The most interesting thing about chief executives is the way they talk about how many patients are admitted to hospital with no symptoms and later tested positive for Covid.
“Trusts do not report large numbers of Covid-type respiratory issues in patients who require critical care or increased oxygen use. This is contrary to what we observed at January’s Delta variant peak.
“We need to be careful about how we interpret current Covid admissions data.” He stated that trusts “are preparing for all possible outcomes and hoping for the very best”.
The consequences of a clampdown could be catastrophic
Commentary by Professor Philip Thomas
At least, for the moment, common sense prevailed. Boris Johnson (and the Cabinet) have stood firm despite a torrent of frightening statistics and dire predictions.
Before the new year, there will be no additional restrictions for Covid.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has sensibly urged people not to throw caution to the wind when enjoying parties on December 31 – but in England at least, parties are permitted.
This is vital. This is vital for the health of society and economy.
On Boxing Day, empty tables were seen at the Concert Square bar in Liverpool’s city center. Downing Street is understood to be leaning towards new guidance urging people in England to be careful and limit contacts – rather than imposing new legally-binding restrictions
Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer of England (right), and Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Advisor, earlier in the year
The reasoning behind it would have also been flawed because of a basic misinterpretation of statistics. The situation can seem grim if we only consider the worst-case scenarios of the current wave.
Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London said that 10,000 hospital admissions are being made every day. The reality is far from that – in fact, yesterday’s NHS figures show there were fewer than 10,000 Covid patients in hospital in the whole of England. In reality, the number was 8,474.
You should never base decisions about policy on worse-case scenarios.
Statistics models show that even the most optimistic forecasts can be a poor predictor for reality. We can be confident in 97% of cases that the best outcome will come true, due to the wide range of possible outcomes. This isn’t wishful thinking. It’s mathematics.
Gloom-mongers include a few who are members of the Government’s Sage Committee. They believe that it is always better to prepare for the worst.
As leaders in the country attempt to stop Omicron’s spread, tighter coronavirus controls were imposed today in Wales and Northern Ireland. Pictured: Boxing Day Sales at Oxford Street.
This strategy will only be effective if it is relatively painless. Covid restrictions are a way to shut down the economy and society.
The gross domestic product of the United States has not returned to its pre-Covid days, two years ago. A strong economic recovery is unlikely to bring about a stronger economy. More people will be affected by lockdown restrictions that Covid than any other time.
Judgment value, the risk assessment tool I developed at University of Bristol is a proof that the economy must improve continually if we want to live longer and healthier lives for our children.
The cost of locking down earlier is rising. There is a growing backlog in NHS treatment for life-threatening illnesses, and there are increased levels of domestic abuse as well as disruptions to education. These issues cannot be ignored.
It’s easy to get caught up in the worst-case scenario scenarios and neglect positive information. The UK Health Security Agency reported that Omicron was causing England to have between 50% and 70% fewer hospitalisations than Delta.
The weekend’s data released yesterday showed further positive news with the hospitalisations remaining flat. London saw 364 admissions for Christmas Day, compared to 390 the previous day.
Some might have been worried to learn that there were more than 1.5 million people in England with active infections in December.
However, this was not unexpected. That’s thanks to Bristol’s Predictor Corrector Coronavirus (PCCF) power. It’s very close to the prediction I made in the Daily Mail.
According to the PCCF the total number of active infection may exceed 3 million during the peak of the wave. We may also see an increase in the number of people admitted to hospitals each day to around 3,000 in England.
But that’s well below the 4,130 we saw at the peak in January – and daily deaths should stay well below what we saw in January too.
Philip Thomas is the University of Bristol’s Visiting Academic Professor