Or could the restrictions go further, back to Step 2, as it was in April? That would mean non-essential retail could stay open, but pubs and restaurants could only serve at tables outside and indoor mixing with other households was banned. Perhaps to Step 3, in May 2021, with a limit of six people meeting indoors, and the hospitality industry restricted to table service inside. Reversing back along the roadmap that took us out of lockdown in the Spring looks likely. That may come after Christmas when the UKHSA predicts 250 cases will be in hospital – enough for a meaningful statistical comparison with the Delta variant.īut even if the risk of serious disease is lower than in previous waves hospitals could still be overwhelmed because of the high rate of infections. The chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty told MPs on the Health Select Committee this week that tighter controls could only be justified when there was evidence on the severity of Omicron disease. In Scotland, businesses are already having to take extra measures and the public is being told to limit gatherings to three households at a time.Īnd in Wales nightclubs will close after Christmas, and social distancing and outdoor mixing is being strongly encouraged.īy contrast, in England, the government has preferred a lighter touch.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimates every infected person is passing the virus on to between three and five others.Īnd in some parts of the country cases are doubling twice in just three days.Ī return to working from home and wearing masks will prevent some opportunities for the virus to spread. It’s hard to see how Plan B is going to rein in Omicron. "In many ways, the most effective way of diminishing contact is to have a circuit breaker."Īnalysis by Thomas Moore, science correspondent He said: "The only way really, or at least the most effective way, we can have an immediate effect is to decrease the number of contacts we have. Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews and a member of SAGE, earlier told Times Radio that Plan B alone would not be enough to curb infections. The source said the circuit breaker would need to last for long enough for everyone to get a booster, building an extra wall of defence.
Under the step 2 restrictions of the roadmap out of lockdown pubs and restaurants could only serve at tables outside and indoor mixing with other households was banned. Sky News understands that experts who produce advice for ministers believe there are now "hundreds of thousands" of infections every day, many more than the number of official cases recorded on the daily dashboard.Ī return to measures that we were living with in April would be needed to stop hospitals being overwhelmed. Further restrictions are needed within days to stop hospitals being overwhelmed by the surge of Omicron, according to senior government scientists.
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