BBy Tony O’Riley-
The UK’s top public health officials advising ministers that “stringent national measures” need to be imposed by 18 December to avoid Covid hospitalisations surpassing last winter’s peak, according to reports.
It follows research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine warned that tougher restrictions may be needed in order to prevent Omicron causing anywhere between 25,000 and 75,000 deaths in England over the next five months.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, received a presentation from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) on Tuesday warning that even if the new Omicron variant leads to less serious disease than Delta, it risks overwhelming the NHS with 5,000 people admitted to hospital a day, the Guardian reported.
Scientists on the SAGE committee that advise the government have commissioned half a dozen academic groups to make predictions during this pandemic about hospitalisation and death rates.
However, the presentation from the UK Health and Security Agency omits the fact that covid-19 death rates have so far not been reliable because of the weakness in the way they have been gathered. Also, the fact past predictions about death rates have been proven to be wildly wrong and off the mark in the past makes the exercise of appointing academic groups to make predictions almost pointlesa
Statistics show that 633 Omicron cases have been recorded in the UK – the biggest daily increase so far for the variant, but they do not account for the effect of those cases on hospitalisations and the role of underlying health issues in those hospitalisations, in the process altering the full picture in terms of real cases are
Scientists on the SAGE committee advising the government have commissioned half a dozen academic groups to make predictions during this pandemic about hospitalisation and death rates.
Preliminary real-world evidence from the UK Health Security Agency on Friday showed that Omicron dramatically blunts the effectiveness of two doses of the vaccine, particularly AstraZeneca. But the addition of a booster is likely to prevent symptomatic infection.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Mr Javid updated MPs on new changes to COVID passports in England.
The changes include:
People in England will need two jabs and a booster dose to get into large venues, or a negative lateral flow test, as part of their COVID pass – once they have had a reasonable chance of getting a booster.The COVID pass for international travel will be rolled out to include those from the ages of 12 to 15 years old.
All necessary steps should be taken to restrict the spread of the omicton virus, but talks of singent measures are premature and unnecessary at this stage.