By Bern Kerrigan-
Hypocritical Uk two week lockdown after christmas is being planned as part of tougher measures to be introduced to stem the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, with reports that plans are being drawn up for a two-week “circuit breaker” after Christmas.
Ministers are due to present draft regulations that could mean England returning to restrictions last seen in April, according to the Times.
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It follows claims that the UK’s daily cases record was broken for a third consecutive day on Friday, with another 93,000 reported..
The mayor of London has warned he is “incredibly concerned” by the level of Covid infection in the city.
However, the hypocrisy displayed by ministers last year who held parties in Downing Street has led to wide opposition and distrust in the Uk government by the British public.
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There isn’t much hope that the British public will adhere much to announcements of a lockdown when it comes to indoor mixing.
Ministers deemed hypocritical in this respect refers to the collective hypocrisy exposed by the multiple inc
Members of The Eye Of Media.Com’s think which includes a few nurses, secondary school teachers, and university lecturers from a number of institutions, met on Friday with the internal team during a five hour zoom call to thoroughly discuss omicron variant and the integrity of ministers in parliament, in light of the hypocrisy of 2020 revealed through the leaks.
There is a strongly held view that many ministers who contribute to the law making of this country are irresponsible and unreliable, though others say such ministers constitute a small proportion of parliament as a whole. The thinktank meets again this weekend and early next week to collectively highlight conclusive truths, the basis on which the British public can be informed of how to view this government and its formal pronouncements, and on which to approach the Uk government , and even scrutinise advise coming from Sage scientists.
The measures under consideration could ban meeting other people indoors except for work purposes for two weeks after Christmas, with pubs and restaurants limited for the fortnight to outdoor service only.
The plans will need to be approved by prime minister Boris Johnson- a scenario that will likely upset large sections of the already disillusioned British public.
Johnson has called a Cobra meeting this weekend with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in response to the rising cases of the variant.
“The timing of such measures is crucial,” accor5ding to Sage minutes. “Delaying until 2022 would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings.”
Sage meetings are designed to advise officials and ministers about the possible path of the pandemic in certain circumstances rather than offer up concrete predictions.
The minutes of the Sage meeting held on Thursday said: “If the aim is to reduce the levels of infection in the population and prevent hospitalisations reaching these levels, more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon.”
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
The document says there are many uncertainties about the future path of hospitalisations linked to Omicron.
The World Health Organization has said that the Omicron variant has been identified in at least 89 countries – and is spreading significantly faster than the Delta strain.
It is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, it added.
In England, modelling indicates that hospital admissions could peak at at least 3,000 a day without intervention measures beyond the Plan B rules currently in place, Sage advisers say in the leaked minutes.
The highest seven day average recorded last January reached just over 3,700 hospital admissions a day.
The number of people requiring treatment in hospital has been rising, with admissions being between 696 and 815 every day in the past week.
The current Plan B rules for England include Covid passes for certain events, face masks in more places and people being urged to work from home if they can.
The other nations of the UK had already brought in similar rules – and Scotland has gone further by asking people to limit social contact to three households at a time in the run-up to Christmas. Wales has also ordered nightclubs to close from 27 December. The Sage minutes say: “If the aim is to reduce the levels of infection in the population and prevent hospitalisations reaching these levels, more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon.”
The record of the meeting goes on to say that measures equivalent to those in place after Step Two or Step One of the roadmap in England, if enacted early enough, “could substantially reduce the peak in hospital admissions and infections compared with Plan B alone”.
Step One and Two of the roadmap for easing lockdown – which was in place in England in the Spring – banned indoor social contact and indoor hospitality. Step Three allowed six people, or two households, to meet indoors and indoor hospitality could reopen.
“The timing of such measures is crucial,” say the Sage minutes. “Delaying until 2022 would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings.”
Sage meetings are designed to advise officials and ministers about the possible path of the pandemic in certain circumstances rather than offer up concrete predictions.
The minutes of the Sage meeting held on Thursday said: “If the aim is to reduce the levels of infection in the population and prevent hospitalisations reaching these levels, more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon.”
They continued that introducing measures equivalent to those in place after step two or step one of the roadmap in England could “substantially reduce the peak in hospital admissions and infections compared with plan B alone”, t.
Step one and two of the roadmap for easing lockdown banned indoor hospitality and indoor social mixing between households.
“The timing of such measures is crucial,” the Sage minutes said, adding that delaying until 2022 would “greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings”
The Financial Times reported that Johnson was presented with a number of options on Friday under a so-called plan C, ranging from “mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown”.
Quoting allies of the prime minister, it said that while Johnson still wanted to go down the guidance route, he needed to be realistic about the threat of Omicron.
Johnson has called a Cobra meeting this weekend with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in response to the rising cases of the variant.
Victor Adebowale, the chairman of the NHS Confederation, backed a circuit breaker to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant.
He told Times Radio: “I would support the circuit breaker. My members would support the circuit breaker.
“We’ve been calling for plan B for some time now and we’re glad that it was voted through. I think the government has to be prepared to recall parliament if further interventions are needed.”
He described the leaked modelling by Sage as “very worrying”.
He said: “The fact of the matter is we should be taking the precautionary principle. We should be protecting our NHS and our public services. We have no economy without health.”
According to the government’s latest figures, a further 93,045 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in the UK as of 9am on Friday – the highest daily total since the beginning of the pandemic, and a rise of 4,669 on the previous record set on Thursday.
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