UK health minister doesn’t rule out new COVID-19 restrictions before Christmas

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LONDON Britain’s health minister Sajid Javid declined on Sunday to rule out the chance of farther COVID-19 restrictions before Christmas, saying the spread of the omicron variant was a veritably presto moving situation.

Britain reported a swell in cases of the omicron coronavirus variant on Saturday, which government counsels said could be just the tip of the icicle. London’s mayor declared a “ major incident” to help the megacity’s hospitals manage.

Asked whether he could rule out restrictions before Christmas, Javid told BBC Television “ We’re assessing the situation, it’s veritably presto moving.”

“ There are no guarantees in this epidemic I do n’t suppose. At this point, we just have to keep everything under review.”
Javid said the government was taking the “ sobering” advice of its scientists seriously, was watching the data on an “ nearly hourly base” and would balance that against the broader impact of restrictions on effects similar as businesses and education.

He said that there was a still a lot that isn’t known about omicron but staying until data is clearer may leave it too late to reply to it.
Further than 100 of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own Conservative lawgivers suggested against the government’s rearmost measures to attack the spread of COVID-19 before this week and Johnson is facing the biggest extremity of his premiership after a litany of dishonors and mistakes.

Asked if Johnson was too weak to bring in farther restrictions, Javid said “ No, I do n’t suppose that’s the case. if the government felt that farther action had to be taken of course we’d present that to congress and it would be for congress to decide.”

The number of omicron cases recorded across the country hit nearly as of 1800 GMT on Friday, over by further than cases from 24 hours before, the UK Health Security Agency said.

The number of all new COVID-19 cases reported in sanctioned data on Saturday was. Cases were over44.4 percent over the seven days toDec. 18 compared with the former week.

Javid said the government believed around 60 percent of new COVID-19 cases in England were now omicron.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he allowed new restrictions were ineluctable else the health service would be on the verge of collapse under the joint pressures of staff dearths and increased hospitalizations.