London, Thanasis Gavos
Omicron’s bodies, which are being treated in the United Kingdom, remain at ten, government officials said.
It was preceded by morning statements by Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dominique Raab to Sky News and then to the BBC, which put the number of Omicron’s patients at 250 and nine, respectively.
The government clarified that Mr. Raab inadvertently made a mistake in both cases.
Mr. Raab also said that despite concerns about the growing dispersion of the new variant, the government “has not planned any” additional restrictive measures for the holiday season.
He called, however, on all adult citizens to make an appointment for the booster dose of the vaccine, as part of the government’s goal of giving the third dose to all citizens aged 18 and over by the end of the year.
This goal translates to about 1 million doses per day, while during the vaccination program the maximum number of doses given in one day is about 840,000.
NHS public health officials have expressed concern in British newspapers that the goal is unrealistic and that the best that can be achieved is to offer all adults the opportunity to make an appointment before the end of the year. for the third dose.
A senior NHS official told the Times that “ministers have a duty to set realistic goals so as not to condemn public services to failure.”
On Monday, the online platform to make appointments for the booster dose constantly crashed due to the tens of thousands of simultaneous visits, with 390,000 overtaking one of the available appointments. Also, outside the large vaccination centers, queues of citizens formed who wanted to make the third dose with or without an appointment. In one case the wait was up to five hours.
All this while the NHS has been raised to the highest level of the fourth tier since Monday, which means that now the coordination for dealing with the pandemic is done at the national level and not by any local or regional administration.
The new alert level predicts that vaccination centers will operate at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with some possibly receiving people on a 24-hour basis.
In a letter, the NHS headquarters also instructed hospitals to vacate as many beds as possible in view of the “dramatic” increase in Omicron’s hospital staff, which Health Minister Sajid Javid warned on Monday. In this context, recovering patients will be able to be transferred to hotels if needed.
In addition, medical and nursing staff may be employed to support the vaccination program, even if this means postponing other scheduled treatments.
Along with additional vaccination centers set up in hospitals, clinics, clinics and pharmacies, booster doses will be available on buses as mobile units, in temples, on football pitches and in community recreation centers.
It is noted that so far the third installment has been made by 23,561,729 citizens and it is estimated that about 18 million more adults are entitled to do it.
As of today, moreover, the obligation of isolation for contacts of confirmed cases of Omicron ceases to apply. Now, those who are fully vaccinated come into contact with a case should have a rapid antigen test daily for a week.
However, on Monday and until Tuesday morning, the government website from which citizens can order free rapid tests showed that there were no more available and referred to pharmacies and other places of distribution.
Later on Tuesday, the deputies will vote on the measures of the “plan B” that the government has already started to implement. The measures concern the extension of the obligatory use of the mask, the daily tests for Omicron case contacts, the most controversial adoption of the so-called vaccination certificates for entering indoor areas with more than 500 people and outdoor events with more than 4,000 attendees. the demonstration of a negative rapid test will also be provided) and the mandatory vaccination of front-line personnel in health structures.
The measure of vaccination certificates, which comes into force on Wednesday, and the mandatory NHS vaccination provoke strong reactions from members of the ruling Conservative Party, who speak of restricting citizens’ freedoms – especially after the revelation made by the Minister of Health that At some point in the new year, when most citizens have been given the opportunity to take the booster dose, the vaccination certificate will only be issued when the third dose has been taken.
According to the British media, up to 79 Conservative MPs have expressed their intention to vote against the measure or abstention, a number that would threaten the broad parliamentary majority of Boris Johnson if the Labor Party had not made it clear that they would vote for the measures as “proportional and necessarily “.
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