Boris Johnson has admitted the NHS is coming under major pressure because of the Omicron coronavirus variant, but said England would stick with existing Covid-19 restrictions for now.
The prime minister is due to take a decision on Wednesday about whether to tighten curbs amid opposition from some of his ministers and Conservative MPs, and he said on Monday that Omicron was “plainly milder” than previous variants.
His comments came as ministers faced more criticism for failing to provide enough rapid Covid tests for people to use at home over the Christmas holiday period. The wholesaler contracted by the government to distribute these lateral flow tests to pharmacies in England, Alliance Healthcare, closed on Christmas Day and only resumed deliveries on December 29.
The government on Monday reported 157,758 coronavirus cases in England and Scotland in the latest 24 hour period, meaning almost 1.2m people across the UK have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past seven days, up 50 per cent compared with the previous week. But scientists warn that trends over the Christmas period are less reliable than usual because of incomplete reporting during the festive season.
The number of patients in UK hospitals with Covid increased by almost 50 per cent in the week to December 29, reaching nearly 12,000, as the NHS also contends with significant staff shortages as workers catch Omicron.
Johnson said: “I think we’ve got to recognise that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more.”
But he added Omicron “does seem pretty conclusively to be less severe than Delta or Alpha”.
He said the government would continue to keep relevant data under review, and would stick with its so-called plan B restrictions for England for the time being, which include wearing masks in public places and work from home guidance.
Nadhim Zahawi, education secretary, said there was “nothing in the data” to suggest the need for new measures in England in the coming weeks.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said data from London, the centre of the Omicron outbreak, was encouraging because daily growth in the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 was slowing.
He added the other “positive news” was that “hospitals are still not seeing large numbers of seriously ill older people. CEOs across the country are echoing London colleagues in pointing to the fact that care-home Omicron outbreaks are not translating into hospital admissions.
“The issue for the NHS is not the size of [the] very ill older people [with] Covid, but the number of staff absences and general admissions with Covid on top of existing pressures,” said Hopson.
Hospitals in Lincolnshire have declared a major incident because of “unprecedented” staff shortages related to coronavirus, and Hopson said a “number of trusts have declared internal critical incidents over the last few days”.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals, which runs four sites in the county, said it was taking “additional steps to maintain services” owing to significant staffing issues.
Meanwhile, Labour seized on the disclosure that Alliance Healthcare, the only wholesaler contracted by the government to distribute lateral flow tests to pharmacies in England, had shut for four days over the Christmas period.
Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, said: “The government has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to England’s supply of Covid tests.”
Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, a trade body, accused the government of not planning properly for the surge in public demand for tests following the Omicron outbreak.
“Why one wholesaler?” she asked. “It doesn’t make sense when you have such a big demand,” Hannbeck said, adding that other companies had applied for the contract.
Alliance said it had, on December 24, distributed more than 2m lateral flow tests to support community pharmacies that remained open over the Christmas bank holiday.
On the same day the company received 2.5m tests from the UK Health Security Agency for distribution after it resumed operations on December 29. “We continue to distribute around 2m lateral flow tests daily,” said Alliance.
The UKHSA said more than 8m test kits were made available to pharmacies between December 29 and New Year’s Eve.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzIyOGE2MDMzLTY0MzItNDUyYi04MDdlLWI0YTVhOGIyZWIxY9IBAA?oc=5
2022-01-03 19:17:39Z
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