The British prime minister is not expected to announce further restrictions to control the Omicron variant in England after being briefed on the impact Christmas had on Covid-19 infections and hospital pressures.
In what was described as an internal government meeting, Boris Johnson was scheduled on Monday to be talked through the latest data by chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser.
The PA news agency understands no announcement is expected to come out of the meeting, potentially leaving England at odds with other parts of the UK where post-Christmas restrictions have been deployed.
Conservative MPs have urged caution in going beyond Plan B measures in England, with veteran Tory Geoffrey Clifton-Brown calling for a “wait-and-see” approach to the impact of infections on hospital admissions.
The latest UK infection data currently in the public domain dates back to Christmas Eve, when more than 122,000 people tested positive in the previous 24 hours, while hospital data on the government dashboard has not been updated since December 20th.
Own decisions
Mr Clifton-Brown said he hoped Mr Johnson would be “very cautious before introducing further measures” as he pushed for people to be able to “make their own decisions” when it came to taking precautions against infection.
In a sign the population could be curbing its own behaviour after Christmas, retail bosses said they had experienced a “muted start” to the post-Christmas sales, with a high street expert suggesting London’s West End experienced a drop of almost half of pre-pandemic footfall levels on St Stephen's Day.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of The West End Company, which represents 600 business across Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street and in Mayfair, said the turnout was largely due to the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The comments come as curbs on hospitality and large events were brought in for those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the Scottish government ordering nightclubs to be shuttered from Monday while hospitality businesses will need to return to offering only table service if serving alcohol.
England is currently under the UK government’s Plan B rulebook, with guidance to work from home, mask wearing in shops and other public settings, and Covid passes to gain entry to large events.
Further restrictions?
Mr Johnson has yet to announce any further rules for England but has indicated he will not hesitate to act after Christmas if required amid rising cases of the Omicron variant.
The British government, according to reports, may choose to issue new voluntary guidance on limiting contacts rather than risk another damaging Tory rebellion by recalling its parliament to impose new rules beyond the existing Plan B measures.
The Times reported that, even if more measures are imposed, plans are being drawn up so that weddings and funerals – deemed “significant life events” – would be exempt from any new rules and disruption.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said it was not yet known how Christmas mixing among younger and older people, many of whom have had a booster vaccination, would impact on hospital demand.
“The bit that we just simply don’t know yet is that most of the Covid-19 admissions tend to be in people who are younger … So what we’re really waiting to see is exactly what is going to happen over the next few days, stroke week, particularly because we know there was a lot of intergenerational mixing at Christmas,” he told Times Radio.
Mr Hopson said the numbers of people in hospital with coronavirus were “definitely starting to increase” and that the country needed to be “ready to bring in tighter protections in terms of restrictions on social contact” if admissions continued to rise.
