London, Thanasis Gavos
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson announced that he will recommend to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday the maintenance of the measures against the pandemic that are currently in force in England.
In a press conference on Downing Street late Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Johnson noted the daily toll of more than 200,000 cases of coronavirus, commenting that anyone who thinks the battle against COVID-19 is over is wrong. “This is a time for maximum attention,” he said.
He stressed, however, that the predominant Omicron variant is milder, as evidenced by the fact that patients in need of intensive care are not increasing like cases and hospitalizations. Add the significant protection that the booster dose now provides.
“We have the opportunity to cross this Omicron wave without closing the country and finding a way to live with the virus,” Boris Johnson continued, warning that in the coming weeks there will be challenges and some services will be disrupted by staff shortages.
For this reason, he announced that 100,000 employees in critical positions have been identified, who from January 10 will undergo a daily rapid test. These include workers in the food supply chain, transport and border services.
He added that if necessary, retired teachers will be activated to fill staff gaps in schools, campaign hospitals are being set up, most per capita antiviral drugs have been ordered in Europe, the army is on standby to help hospitals and a large number of volunteers are being recruited.
He also blamed the decision not to take further action in England on changing the behavior and responsibility of citizens, which provided “valuable time” for the NHS health system.
He asked the citizens to continue to carefully observe the existing measures, ie the use of a mask, work from home where possible and to be tested before meeting with vulnerable or many other people.
He reiterated the importance of the booster dose of the vaccine.
Professor Chris Whitey, chief physician for England, said that according to the latest estimates, one in 25 people in the community in England is a carrier of the coronavirus, or about 2 million people.
He noted that the number of hospitalizations is less than the peak in the previous wave of the pandemic, without this meaning that there are not many hospitalizations, to be precise over 14,000.
He also said that on the one hand the cases are stabilized or even reduced at a younger age, but on the other hand the cases are increased at the older ones, who are more likely to be hospitalized. At this point, Professor Whitey also stressed the importance of boosting the vaccine, especially for the elderly.
He also said that about one in three coronavirus carriers in England were admitted to hospital for another primary reason, not due to a serious Covid infection.
The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Valance, told the same press conference that there were two other unknowns: when the peak would occur and what would happen when Omicron offended more elderly people. He estimated that the hospitalizations will increase further.
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