“We know now those types of measures do carry a very heavy price, both economically, and socially, in terms of non-Covid health outcomes such as impact on mental health,” he said. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the situation is “nowhere near” that which would require the reintroduction of social distancing rules and work-from-home guidance. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was “not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infection with other variants” and that it could take “days to several weeks” to be sure. However, scientists have stressed it is too early to tell.
The strain is known to have an unusually large number of mutations, leading to concerns it could be more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines. Growing numbers of cases of the Omicron variant are being identified in the UK. People get 95 per cent more protection, so I’m encouraging everybody today to go online if you’ve gone over five months, you can go online and book.” How will the Omicron variant affect this? We’ve done 10 million booster jabs already and it’s a very effective thing. “Unfortunately, what you’ve got at the moment is a situation in which the waning of the original two jabs is starting to see too many elderly people getting into hospital,” he said. Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed his statement during a hospital visit in Hexham earlier this month. So it’s really important that we encourage people to come forward when eligible to take those booster jabs,” he said. “If we don’t get good immunity across the population, there may need to be perhaps further measures taken. He urged people to come forward to receive their booster jabs. “I would hope that, with a very successful vaccination campaign, the idea of a winter lockdown is a long way away.” “Clearly, there is a situation that if the NHS is under severe pressure, if the number of deaths sadly starts to increase then obviously there may be discussions around whether more restrictions need to come in. “I very much hope we can avoid that in this country.”ĭr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said that although “we are not out of the woods yet”, Britain’s Covid situation is far from requiring nationwide measures this Christmas.Īsked about a winter lockdown, he told Sky News: “I think we’re a long way away from thinking in those terms. He added: “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.
It may be waning immunity from the vaccines – they haven’t rolled out boosters as quickly as we have, it may be going into winter that people are mingling more indoors.”
#Will we lockdown again drivers#
We don’t fully understand the drivers of what’s causing the increases in places like Germany though where cases numbers have gone up very quickly. A number of European countries are tightening restrictions to deal with fresh waves of the virus.Īsked if the rise in cases on the continent could impact the UK during winter, Professor Ferguson said: “Not necessarily.
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