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Some Covid restrictions need to be re-introduced immediately if England avoids “hitting a winter crisis”, health officials have warned. The NHS said a backup strategy, or Plan B, that includes mandatory face-covering in full and enclosed space should be implemented.
UK cases have risen sharply, but deaths are well below the winter peak. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it was not yet time for Plan B and called for greater use of booster jabs.
He said he did not want any further losses or would jeopardize the “hard-won gains” of the economic opening again.
“I do not want to inject a hint of complacency, but I think our approach works so far,” he said, pointing to lower rates of hospital admissions and deaths than in previous waves of infection.
Daily covid cases were more than 40,000 for seven consecutive days, with 43,738 new infections reported on Tuesday, and the number of patients in the hospital rose from 10% in one week to 7,749 on Monday.
Daily covid cases were more than 40,000 for seven consecutive days, with 43,738 new infections reported on Tuesday, and the number of patients in the hospital rose from 10% in one week to 7,749 on Monday.
The government’s plan A to care for Covid in England this winter is currently on-site with booster jabs offered to around 30 million people, a single dose of a vaccine available to healthy 12 to 15-year-olds, and people advised to wear face masks on Ville Plaza.
If these measures are not enough to avoid “unsustainable pressure” on the NHS, then steps such as face masks in some settings may be mandatory, asking people to work from home and introducing vaccinations as part of Plan B.
Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents health care organizations, urged the government to implement Plan B to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
“The health service is on the brink,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
The pressure would only get worse, and the nation would have to make a decision to take preventative action, he said, adding, “Or are we going to run into a crisis again, despite the evidence?”