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We'll be wearing masks until the new year: Covid rules are set to be
extended in bid to fend off even tougher curbs amid ongoing concerns
over Omicron variant
Laws requiring people to wear face masks in shops could stay until New Year
Final decision on extending use may not be taken until as late as
December 18
But Whitehall sources say it's likely they will stay for at least
another three weeks
Contingency plan would involve vaccine passports and working from home
By JASON GROVES POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 5 December 2021 | UPDATED: 19:46 EST, 5 December 2021
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Laws requiring masks in shops and on public transport are set to stay
until the New Year, as ministers try to fend off demands for tougher
restrictions in the run up to Christmas.
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
A final decision on whether to extend their use may not be taken until
as late as December 18.
Read More
But Whitehall sources said it was likely masks would stay mandatory for
at least another three weeks to give scientists more time to assess the
threat posed by Omicron.
Other restrictions, such as travel tests and compulsory ten-day
quarantine for those in close contact with an Omicron case, are also set
to be extended.
However, sources said Boris Johnson is resisting pressure to move to the
Government's Plan B until at least the New Year.
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant (file image) +11
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant (file image)
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home (file image) +11
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home (file image)
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead
with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas'.
A Whitehall source said: 'In terms of Plan B, we are not there yet. The
ambition is that people can have a much more normal Christmas than last
year.
'That depends on what the data shows about the new variant. But
certainly the hope is that things stay as they are in the next couple of
weeks.'
Mr Raab urged people to get their booster jabs, saying it was the most
important measure in heading off further restrictions.
But he said ministers did not want to follow Germany in making
vaccinations mandatory.
And he ruled out restricting medical treatment for the unvaccinated,
despite warnings from the medical profession that their needs are
crowding out other vital care.
Nicki Credland, chairman of the British Association of Critical Care
Nurses, told The Sunday Times: 'All nurses understand they have to
provide non-judgmental care.
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Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead
with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas' +11
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead
with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas'
'But what we find difficult is that giving care to patients who have
chosen not to be vaccinated has a knock-on effect on other patients.
'We are still human beings and we still get angry at things that we
think aren't just.'
Her comments came after figures revealed more than 90 per cent of Covid
patients needing the most specialist care have not been vaccinated.
Doctors have warned that some transplant surgery is not going ahead and
that vital cancer operations are being delayed.
Mr Raab told Times Radio: 'I would not countenance some sort of
suggestion that we would refuse access to vital services for people who
have not had a jab.'
Britain's Omicron outbreak grows by more than 50% in a day: 86 new cases
take total to 246 as scientist warns its 'too late' to halt spread and
overall Covid cases rise by 16% in week to 43,992
James Gant for MailOnline
The number of new Omicron cases reported in the UK rose by 86 on Sunday,
bringing the total cases to 246 - an increase of more than 50 per cent
in the space of a day.
The UK Health Security Agency, who publish the figures, said 18 of the
new cases are in Scotland taking their total to 48.
The remaining 68 cases were recorded in England, according to the UKHSA.
Meanwhile, a further 43,992 Covid cases were recorded in the UK this
week, an increase of 6,311 on last week's figures.
The increase marks a 16.7 per cent rise since last Sunday while a
further 54 deaths were recorded.
The number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive
for Covid rose by 5.8 per cent from 51 last week.
+11
+11
+11
'It doesn't look there's a great degree of severity': Dr Fauci says
Omicron may be LESS dangerous than Delta
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci says early
indications from South Africa suggest that the Omicron variant may not
be as severe as previously feared.
'Thus far - though it's too early to really make any definitive
statements about it - it does not look like there's a great degree of
severity to it, but we've really got to be careful before we make any
determinations that it is less severe or really doesn't cause any severe
illness comparable to delta,' he said.
'But thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity.
But again we've got to hold judgement until we get more experienced.'
President Joe Biden locked eight South African countries out of the US
last Monday in fear of the new super mutant COVID variant, and the ban
remains in place despite travel remaining open to other foreign countries.
But Fauci said Sunday that the restrictions were made during a time when
an explosion of Omicron cases were rocking South Africa as the severity
of the variant remained unknown.
He said US officials are now reevaluating the restrictions.
'When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just
what is going on,' Fauci told CNN's Jack Tapper.
It comes as a leading scientist warned Britain has left it 'too late' to
halt the spread of the Omicron super-variant.
Professor Mark Woolhouse said bringing in new curbs on travel was 'a
case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'.
The Edinburgh University epidemiologist said it was 'spreading pretty
rapidly' and could become the world's dominant strain.
Professor Woolhouse, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic
Influenza Group on Modelling which advises the Government, said the
measures would not make a 'material difference' as the variant is
already 'spreading pretty rapidly'.
He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: 'I think that may be a
case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
'If Omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there's community
transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it's that
community transmission that will drive a next wave.
'The cases that are being imported are important, we want to detect
those and isolate any positive cases we find, as we would for any case
anywhere.
'But I think it's too late to make a material difference to the course
of the Omicron wave, if we're going to have one.'
The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has also warned
the NHS will be in a 'very, very difficult position' if the Omicron
variant were to lead to a surge in hospital admissions.
Dr Katherine Henderson said hospitals were already struggling to cope as
they enter winter.
'It is pretty spectacularly bad now, it will get worse - and if the new
variant becomes a thing in terms of numbers and translates into
hospitals admissions we are going to be in a very, very difficult
position,' she said.
'We will always still be there. We still want patients to come but we do
have to help people to understand that really at the moment the service
is so stretched that an extra push could be very very difficult.'
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there have been no deaths
linked to the super mutant variant despite the strain being spotted in
38 countries.
However, it warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the
variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective
treatments and vaccines are against it.
'We're going to get the answers that everybody out there needs,' WHO
emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Friday.
Many of the Omicron cases surfacing in the states - and across the globe
- look to be connected to people who had traveled to South Africa
recently, including the first person in the US to have an identified
case of the variant, a resident of San Francisco.
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