Ministers privately believe that falling Covid infection levels in the UK – and rising cases on the continent – amount to a vindication of Boris Johnson’s decision to release lockdown restrictions earlier than European countries.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that about one in 60 people in England had Covid in the week to November 6 – down from one in 50 the previous week.
According to government sources, the contrast is with Germany. Germany has been hit hard by a fourth wave of cases confirmed every day and the numbers are increasing rapidly.
FLASHPOINT. Riot police officers are confronted by anti-lockdown demonstrators in The Hague, Friday night
The Netherlands has returned to a three-week partial lockdown after its prime minister, Mark Rutte, said: ‘The virus is everywhere and needs to be combated everywhere.’
The Hague streets were enraged on Friday evening as protestors hurled rocks, fireworks and bikes at police officers.
The riot police responded by firing water cannons after being warned that hospitals could be overcrowded if they didn’t close bars, restaurants or supermarkets soon. Austria will also impose a lockdown for unvaccinated persons.
The UK is in a different position and yesterday Professor Neil Ferguson said Britain was ‘in quite a different situation from those European countries’.
The epidemiologist, dubbed Professor Lockdown for his modelling that influenced the first UK shutdown, added: ‘I think it is unlikely we will get anything close to what we had last year, that catastrophic winter wave.
‘We might see slow increases as we did in October, for instance, but not anything as rapid as we saw last year.’
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he continued: ‘We can’t be complacent, but at the moment I don’t think we’ll be in a situation the Netherlands is coming into where they really do need to get on top of rising case numbers using social distancing. I very much hope we can avoid that in this country.’
The Netherlands has returned to a three-week partial lockdown after its prime minister, Mark Rutte, said: ‘The virus is everywhere and needs to be combated everywhere.’
On advice from his doctors, Johnson made the decision to open during July. The result was a rise in the number of cases among students and young adults. This trend is beginning to slow down.
A Government source said: ‘It was a bold move but it looks as if it has paid off – getting the worst out of the way while the evenings were still light and without the compounding effect of flu.’
The launch of booster jabs to older persons was faster than No 10. This decision was taken despite the opposition of some parts of the medical profession who wanted stocks sent to poorer countries. It has protected the most vulnerable from Covid disease.
On Friday, Mr Johnson warned of ‘storm clouds’ gathering over Europe as a warning to encourage the over-50s to get their jabs as soon as they are eligible.
After an initial slow start, over 12 million people in Britain have received their boosters. 2.4 Million were given within the past week.
Epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Britain was ‘in quite a different situation from those European countries’. Pictured in June 2020, speaking before the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
A new report on the booster’s effectiveness in Britain is due to be published this week. But Professor Ferguson said the UK’s quick booster rollout might be a fundamental reason it is now faring better than Germany, the Netherlands, and other continental countries.
By the start of November, Germany had only administered about two million boosters, with health minister Jens Spahn lamenting: ‘That is much too few – the pace of boosters is not sufficient.’
The German effort has been hamstrung by fighting between its vaccination committee – which has taken a cautious approach, only approving boosters for the over-70s – and politicians who want to go faster.
‘If every country waited for data before they do anything, we wouldn’t have any data,’ a frustrated Mr Spahn has said.
Yesterday saw the UK record 38,351 Covid deaths and 38.151 Covid cases within the last 24 hours.