Despite the fact that new cases of Covid-19 are skyrocketing in the United Kingdom, surpassing the barrier of 40,000 a day, the Government maintains the reopening of the country and has the ‘plan b’ ready to implement, which includes the mandatory return of the masks and does not rule out confinements.
The new normal has been built on a personal and collective level in England. With the end of the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, three months ago, each person has been adapting to the new dynamics.
Masks are still mandatory in public transport and in closed places or spaces where it is not possible to conserve social distancing measures, but not legally required.
And every day fewer people use them, even on public transport. There are no longer laws that require it to be mandatory.
The health system insists that the risk remains and that the pandemic continues to be a reality.
In an interview with France 24, University of Leicester associate professor and clinical virologist Julian W. Tang stated that “as always, the UK plan looks good on paper, as do previous testing and tracking”,
But he warns that “rhetoric does not always correspond to reality.”
An “uncertain winter”
As temperatures begin to drop, as well as the hours of daylight, scientists and doctors warn that this will be an unpredictable winter.
The virus continues to be a threat to humanity, as well as to global public health, while the population seems to have forgotten its existence, motivated by not having greater restrictions and allowing each person to decide what level of care they want to have.
However, vaccines have been the trusted factor in adapting to this new normal. And on them, the Government has based part of its strategy to face not only Covid-19 but the increase in respiratory infections or flu that are common at this time of year.
The big difference from winter 2020 is that approximately 79% of the UK population, from the age of 12, have already been vaccinated.
Another important point of this strategy is the ‘booster’ program, the third booster dose that will receive at least 32 million people, from the age of 50, and who have a vulnerable health condition.
This plan started several weeks ago, but it has also been highly criticized for being slow to protect the most vulnerable. According to ‘The Telegraph’, less than half of those eligible have received the third dose.
“Not everyone will need boosters because current vaccines still provide sufficient cross-protection in most cases against serious diseases including the Delta variant,” Tang explains.
The Government is betting to a large extent, arousing great criticism, to personal responsibility and common sense on the part of the population.
The risk of not creating additional measures for winter is that it is very possible that part of the population does not have additional care and continues to live as if the virus no longer exists.
The country’s medical authorities have warned that acquiring Covid-19 and the flu at the same time brings “twice the probability of dying,” said the head of the Health Security Agency in the United Kingdom, Jenny Harries.
The official added that “I think the important thing about this winter is that it is likely that we will see the flu, for the first time in real figures, co-circulating with Covid-19.”
so 49K cases in UK today.
Government says “Tough times ahead”.
No shit – and it did NOT have to be this way.
Booster & teen vax acceleration needed urgently alongside some basic mitigations * now *. @ShaunLintern is heroically covering NHS despair pic.twitter.com/3IQdX0XwBz
– Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) October 18, 2021
Vaccines for young people
The scientific committee that advises the Government has recommended, as in other European countries, extending vaccination programs to the youngest.
In the case of the UK, 12-15 year olds are now eligible for a single dose of Pfizer, but the possibility for a future booster was left open.
Vaccination of young people started only on September 20 and according to the BBC, only 15% of eligible young people in England have received a dose.
The purpose of vaccinating young people is to ensure that they continue to attend face-to-face classes, but it is still recommended that they continue to be tested several times a week.
“Immunizing children will control the spread of the virus as natural and vaccine immunity wanes, as long as absorption is widespread,” Tang explains.
Plan B on the table
In the event that cases increase exponentially, so much so that the functioning and capacity of the national health system (NHS) are again at risk, the government may impose new and more stringent restrictions.
There is no clarity on what that figure will be, a sum of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, that forces to implement plan B.
A new lockdown remains an option still on the table, but the government refuses to recognize it as such.
An important sector of the government and the Conservative party, of which Boris Johnson is the head, are opposed to closing the country again. The great fear is another fatal blow to the country’s economy.
Happy Tues! ☀️Just off GMB pointing to 3 things we can do in UK as case # ‘s climbing:
1. face coverings indoors in shops & public transport
2. limit transmission in public indoor spaces through requiring either double vax or negative test result
3. vaccinate !! (incl. boosters).– Prof. Devi Sridhar (@devisridhar) October 19, 2021
“There is also an urgency of time, to maintain the level of herd immunity that we have now, while the booster doses are implemented,” says Tang.
In England, a passport or vaccination certificate will not be implemented at the moment, but in plan B it would be a requirement to enter mass events or places with a large influx of public and where it is difficult to maintain social distance.
Then, the mask or face mask will again be a legal requirement for closed spaces, mass events and public transport, as well as going back to work from home would again be an obligation.
“Because so much of the population has some degree of immunity, the smallest changes in the way we ask people to behave can have a bigger impact,” Johnson said.
The other regions of the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to maintain their own public health policies independent of those dictated by the central government.
In Scotland, for example, unlike England, the vaccination passport is mandatory, as well as the use of a mask in closed spaces.
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