The Government of the United Kingdom has removed this Wednesday from the drawer a plan B against covid-19 that it had prepared since September, but that it never thought it would need. The data that is known of the new variant of the virus, omicron, have forced Boris Johnson to take the initiative and respond as his chief scientist, Patrick Vallance has always recommended: “Hit fast, hit hard.” As of next Monday, the official recommendation for all companies to reinstate teleworking, whenever possible, will be recovered. The masks, which became mandatory again more than a week ago in public transport and shops, will also be mandatory from Friday in cinemas, theaters and public venues. And the covid certificate, which unleashes the libertarian anger of the British conservatives’ hard wing, will be required in nightlife venues, as well as in closed spaces that host more than 500 people, or in outdoor venues with a capacity of more than 4,000 persons. And, in any case, in all places where more than 10,000 spectators are concentrated. “We have already seen how in South Africa the number of hospitalizations has doubled in one week. And here in the UK, infections double every 2-3 days. We are not yet in a position to assume that the omicron will be milder in its symptoms, ”Johnson warned. In the United Kingdom there have already been 568 cases of omicron, whose genome has been sequenced. “We have to assume that there are actually many more cases across the country,” said the prime minister.
The prime minister has decided to announce a tightening of social restrictions just on the day when his credibility was dragged down. British citizens were already aware of the forbidden party that Downing Street staff held last Christmas, when such celebrations indoors were banned and the rest of the people scrupulously abided by strict rules of social distancing. To make matters worse, this week they could also see a video published by the ITV network in which Johnson’s press consultant, Allegra Stratton, scoffed at the idea that the party had been held. Stratton resigned through tears, hours before Johnson appeared publicly, accompanied by his two main advisers, to try to alert the British again.
“Beyond reproaches for certain behaviors, we ask you to pay attention to the data and the logic of everything that has been exposed,” implored Chris Whitty, the chief medical director of the NHS (National Health Service acronym in English) and the most sensible and respected voice of the prime minister’s team of advisers. “What we know today is that the omicron is transmitted faster than the delta variant, which so far has only infected young people and will not reach the most vulnerable population for two or three weeks,” announced Whitty. “If we take into account that almost 28 days pass from the positive contagion to the possible hospitalization, it is too early to lower the alert.”
While waiting to gather more data on the new variant, the Johnson government, like those of many other countries, is concentrating its entire strategy on accelerating the administration of the third booster dose. More than 21 million citizens have already received the call booster in a national campaign more focused on small neighborhood pharmacies than on large vaccination centers, as happened in the first phase of the campaign. All adults over 18 years of age can now reserve the day and time to receive the injection, and it is the NHS that is prioritizing according to age ranges.
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