BORIS Johnson has ruled out immediate Covid restrictions in England but said the UK Government wouldn’t hesitate to take further action following a lengthy Cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister met with his senior ministers earlier on Monday to discuss the rising tide of Covid cases amid warnings the NHS could be overwhelmed without further action.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty are understood to have briefed the unscheduled meeting of the Cabinet.
Downing Street denied it was an emergency meeting, saying ministers were being updated on a fast-changing situation.
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It comes after the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned daily hospital admissions could reach 3,000 without further restrictions.
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Johnson said the Government reserves the “possibility of taking further action” to protect public health due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
He added that the UK Government was monitoring the situation “hour by hour”.
He said: “Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS.
“We won’t hesitate to take action.”
Asked about the prospect of new restrictions including on the hospitality sector, Johnson (pictured) told reporters: “We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.
“But at the moment what I think we want people to focus on is exercising caution so ventilation, masks in the appropriate places, all the usual stuff about washing hands, but remember how contagious Omicron really is.
“I think what you’re seeing already is the British public understanding that and you can see in people’s patterns of behaviour since we went to Plan B that they are changing the way they go about their lives, they are changing some of the assumptions they make about the things that they want to do.”
Johnson added that “in many ways I regret” the impact on hospitality of Plan B and people socialising less, but added: “If it can help to get down the R (rate of infection), get down the way the disease is multiplying, that can be very helpful to us and the country.
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“But what really matters is for everybody to get vaccinated and get boosted above all because the booster really does give you a very high level of protection.”
Pressed on why he was not acting now given the warnings from his scientific advisers, Boris Johnson told reporters: “There are still some things that we need to be clearer about before we decide to go further.
“But I’ve got to say to the British public, and I say to everybody, we will not exclude going further if we have to, to do things to protect the public.”
Downing Street did not deny reports that a number of ministers, including Chancellor Rishi Sunak, have pushed back against calls for action without more evidence of the impact the virus would have.
Sunak has reportedly been pushing back against further restrictions being brought in
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was part of the job of ministers to scrutinise any advice they were given.
The spokesman said: “We need to strike the right balance between protecting lives and livelihoods. That is what we are focused on.
“This is a fast-moving situation. There are significant gaps in the data we have relating to this variant.
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“We are working to get more clarity on what impact it has on things like severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths.
“It is one of the roles of ministers to scrutinise any advice and evidence provided, and consider it in the round. That is the function of Cabinet.”
Johnson has reportedly been presented with a series of options to tackle the spread of the virus, ranging from guidance asking people to limit indoor contacts, to rules on household mixing, social distancing and a curfew on pubs and restaurants, to full lockdown.
The PM urged the public to get a booster vaccine to stop the spread of the omicron variant
Professor Ravi Gupta, a member of the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said that with 12,000 confirmed cases of Omicron variant in the UK, it could potentially overwhelm the NHS.
He told Sky News: “So that’s a really critical situation that we’re facing.
“Even if the vaccines protect us to a significant degree, then the increased transmissibility and penetration of the virus into communities that we’re seeing already is putting a large amount of pressure (on the NHS) because a very small fraction of a very large number still translates to significant numbers being hospitalised.”
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