Plan B to continue but no further covid restrictions planned

PM Boris Johnson

Plan B will stay in place but no further restrictions will be brought in by government to cope with the spread of Omicron.

Plan B involves working from home if possible; wearing a face mask in most public indoor venues, including theatres and cinemas and now schools, and use of the NHS Covid Pass for entry into nightclubs, and venues where large crowds gather including unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said tonight (January 4) that he would be recommending the continuation of the measures but said evidence shows that the variant is milder and it is not resulting in the same intensive care neds as previous waves.

Cases are continuing to rise at record rates with 200,000 positive cases in one day last week – double that of the previous highest figure.

Today 218,000 positive cases were confirmed but some of that figure comes from delayed data due to the festive period.

The PM urged people to get their booster jab saying: “Together with the Plan B measures we have a chance to ride out Omicron without shutting down our country once again, we can keepour schools and businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus.”

However, he said the weeks ahead would be “challenging” and some services would be disrupted by staff absences.

Lateral Flow Tests will be provided for critical workers, ranging from those in food processing to Border Force staff, and military help would be brought in for those NHS Trusts most under pressure as the service moved to a “war footing.”

He said: “We’re increasing NHS capacity by building onsite Nightingale hospitals, as well as creating 2,500 virtual beds where people can be safely treated at home.

“We’ve bought more antivirals per person than anywhere else in Europe those are the tablets which reduce your chances of going to hospital once you’ve caught Covid.

“We’re mobilising our volunteers – the emerging territorial army of the NHS –and we’re working to identify those NHS Trusts which are most likely to need actual military support, so this can be prepared now.

“As our NHS moves to a war footing, I will be recommending to Cabinet tomorrow that we continue with Plan B, because the public have responded and changed their behaviour, your behaviour, buying valuable time to get boosters in arms and help the NHS to cope with the Omicron wave. So please carry on observing those measures for now.”

He added: “There are still almost 9 million people eligible, who haven’t had their booster, And it’s absolutely heart-breaking that as many as 90 per cent of those in intensive care with Covid have not had their booster, and over 60 per cent of those in Intensive Care, who have Covid, have not had any vaccination at all.

“People are dying needlessly because they haven’t had their jabs, they haven’t had that booster.And there are 2 million booster slots available this week alone.

“It’s already the case that to travel to some countries you need a booster to be considered fully vaccinated, and it’s likely that within weeks this will increasingly become the norm. So if you haven’t done it already, get yourself boosted this month.”

25 Comments

  1. A year ago, it is alleged, Boris said “… he would rather see ‘bodies pile high in their thousands’ than order a third lockdown,”
    So we know what his approach to the healthcare of the nation is.

      • Oh yes.
        Infections topping 200,000 a day, several NHS trusts on the verge of collapse, but “there’s nothing in the data .. ”
        If you struggled to get through on 101 in the past, you haven’t a hope now.

        • You have to worry about a person who is actually calling for lockdowns like yourself Phylis. Do you not remember what a state the nhs was in before covid? Much worse than this

        • Infections are totally irrelevant with Omicron being the dominant strain.

          The only reason the NHS-despite being under far less pressure than when they claimed the same thing a year ago & have constantly claimed for nearly 2 years now are under pressure is due to their insane policy of sending anybody who tests positive home for a week-despite them having nothing more than cold symptoms or even no symptoms-this approach is total insanity. Along with their policy of putting non Covid patients on Covid wards. Just as we saw in South Africa everything other than infections are going to drop soon.

  2. Lockdowns achieve very little and rob people of their freedoms , businesses , social interactions and wellbeing. For once I believe Boris is correct in not incarcerating people and ruining businesses. If we did not test so many people and got on with our lives unless very poorly it would be sensible. We have to learn to live with Covid eventually as it appears it is here to stay in one form or another

    • Testing is pointless now with Omicron as the dominant strain & Delta in its last throes. That is of course unless the NHS bosses like the last 2 years of being feted as Gods & unquestionable to distract from the dead babies, perverted doctors, butchering doctors like Paterson etc & using Covid as a way to not perform operations, scans, cancel appointments etc.

      Certainly it is clear GP’s have no interest in going back to seeing patients, certainly not while they collect their full wage for Skype consultations mostly conducted from home & then get paid 15-30 quid for every Covid jab they put into people-the same people they then refuse to see in surgery.

  3. I think its up to people to make their own choice , I WONT be told by someone who thinks its ok, send your kids to school etc or its ok to get pissed over Christmas , will let everyone know about the new year when I have thought about it.

  4. Too many independent top medical and scientific experts, and statisticians, scrutinising and challenging the official figures now for the fear control totalitarian merchants to get away with it all any more. So many legal cases ongoing. For lockdown lovers, look at the enormous harm it has done to humanity globally in terms of non covid medical cases not treatment, the mental health crises ongoing, suicides and increases in addictions and domestic abuse, scale of small businesses going under, enormous damage to children in terms of their education and mental health and futures, elderly dying and suffering alone, billions if not trillions wasted on ineffective covid apparatus and experimental drugs (which are unsafe and ineffective), loss of human rights and emergence of completely controlled and bought mainstream media, etc. etc. And no politician of any colour supporting this will be forgotten for their cowardice.

    • “The fear control totalitarian merchants”. Whoever they are, they aren’t getting very far in Britain.

      I don’t think there’s any cowardice involved in advising people to take precautions and in putting in place measures to limit the spread of something which is considerably more serious than the common cold.

    • I know this is going to come as a shock to you Steve et al, but the earth isn’t flat! There I said it, so all you Flat Earthists get vaccinated, and Boostered! The NHS Kent & Medway CCG Bulletin today, says 984,000 in Kent have been vaccinated, 79% of the population! Getting everyone properly vaccinated is the only answer to stop people being killed, hospitalised, or made very sick so they can’t work due to this virus! I will repeat this, one third of people with the virus don’t know they have it, so they are walking around spreading it!

      This is what is bringing the NHS to its knees, people who refuse for whatever daft reason to be vaccinated, can be spreading it, and they have NO excuse not to be, unless its because they like the idea of killing people, and not being held responsible for it! Its time vaccinating was made mandatory, and for anyone spreading anti vaccination propaganda to be made illegal!

      • That should read “people who refuse for whatever daft reason NOT to be vaccinated can be spreading it, and they have no excuse not to be etc”

        • Update: This morning, 10/1/22, the TDC Website states that last week a further 2,653 cases of the virus were reported in Thanet, bringing the total from the start to 27,645, with 540 killed by it! Last November TDC recorded just 578 cases, the following week it was 653, then 657, then 826, then 807, then 1,029, then 1,693, and now 2,653! Its not killing people so much now as most people have been sensible and are vaccinated. But if the 2,653 last week have not been vaccinated, as 90% of those being hospitalised are as has been reported, then we are nowhere near eliminating the bug! I do not understand the mentality of people who do not want to be vaccinated! Its proven science it works, and many other once lethal diseases have been eliminated by vaccinations, so don’t be a loser, get vaccinated, its the only way to get this under control!

  5. Was rather ironic reading this about face masks being needed in schools, cinemas, shops etc whilst watching the world darts final with 3000 people jammed cheek to jowl in the Ally Pally shouting and singing with no masks on (and generally having a good time to be honest). No wonder lots of people ignore the rules.

    • I’m just happy that restaurants are fully open, as it’s my birthday! Last year they were shut, and the year before I almost certainly had Covid (there were no tests at the time). I’ll be chinking my glass to Boris today! ; )

      • Chink it to the 100 Tory rebels-without that bolt of reality of his position Boris would be shutting everything down, just like Mrs Krankie in Scotland & Ian McCaskill in Wales.

  6. Because in Trumps America he didn’t order a Lockdown when he was President, tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily! Once President Biden took over as President, putting in place a mandatory order that people must wear a mask at work, and be vaccinated incidents of Covid dropped dramatically! Trump didn’t want to take action because it stopped people using his golf courses, and hotels. I would like to see this government make it illegal to spread anti vaccination propaganda!

    Hospitals nationally are failing because their clinical staff are suffering from the virus! This new one may not kill you if you have been vaccinated, but it can still make you very ill! Don’t be a moron, get Boostered, wear a mask so you don’t spread the virus if you are unknowingly asymptomatic and have the virus, and self isolate as much as possible. Yes, this bug may never be completely wiped out, and so neither is ‘Flu, which is why we need an annual ‘Flu jab, but Covid is far more lethal than ‘Flu!

    • Yes, it is highly fair to compare a president who was in power in 2020 when vaccines weren’t even available until the last few weeks of his tenure, to a president who came in as they were being rolled out.

      The propaganda is coming from the government & the media-still trying to tell us three thousand a day to die from milder Omicron variant-they were claiming six thousand a day the week before-when Delta which they claimed even higher numbers would die from couldn’t even make it to 1,800 on it’s worst day!

      The hospitals are failing because of their policy of sending positive test staff home for a week, despite them having nothing different than a regular cold-the ones they & everybody have always worked with.

      Even the head of the committee for vaccines & immunisation yesterday said boosters need to stop & there has to be real evidence for a fourth jab & the elderly/vulnerable are the ones that need to be protected. Omicron is perfect for building up natural resistance-being wasted because of the insistence on endless jabs.

  7. It’s ironic that those shouting freedom, human rights and what was it ‘perverted doctors’, are often the same ones who want to bring back capital punishment for just about anything, and seek to lock up anyone who in their opinion is not of the right sort.
    Look, wearing a mask, washing your hands, and keeping your distance, is annoying at worst, and second nature now to many, so give it a rest.
    As for Trump, anyone who incites a bunch of lunatics to invade their own parliament is guilty of sedition, especially as his allegations on not losing an election, was based on ‘trumped up data’.
    Peter, by all means enjoy your birthday, (you don’t look a day over 90), and no one is going to stop you.
    The real problem we have is a Govt that hardly anyone believes, and what I term malevolent confusion spread by angry numskulls, who want to mislead innocent members of the public, and damage scientists and health professionals, because their lives have not been perfect.

    • I don’t want to bring back capital punishment & have no desire to lock up anybody who hasn’t committed a crime.

      I do all three of those things & have done since 2020.

      I didn’t say Trump was a good president or human being. I simply pointed out that it is ludicrous to compare the Covid rates of 2020- when no vaccine was available & Trump was in office, to the 2021 rates when Biden was in office & they were, of course they were going to fall last year-regardless of who was in charge.

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