Among the latest moves, the Boris Johnson government is developing contingency plans to help businesses and supply chains avoid disruptions caused by increased staff absences, the Financial Times reported.
Private companies have been asked to test the plans in the worst-case scenario of up to 25% absences from the workforce, according to the newspaper.
Covid-related absences among hospital staff rose nearly two-thirds between Dec. 26 and Dec. 31, the Times reported Sunday, citing figures from the National Health Service.
Regionally, the situation is even worse, with parts of a London hospital having to close because half of the nursing staff were ill, the newspaper reported. Health service personnel have also had difficulty accessing covid tests.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the Sunday Telegraph that high school students in England will be instructed to return to wearing masks in classrooms as the omicron variant spreads.
That will bring the country in line with current measures in Scotland and Wales. Currently, the school masking plan for England is expected to end on January 26, when virus measures known as Plan B.
There were more than 162,000 positive tests for Covid-19 in England on Saturday, roughly four times the daily level since early December, extending a series of all-time highs linked to the highly contagious omicron variant.
‘Last resource’
London was the first epicenter of the omicron strain in the UK, and although cases there appear to have stalled, they are increasing dramatically in several other areas, including Northern Ireland, the North West of England and much of Scotland.
The UK Health Security Agency said in a blog post that loosening the rules on self-isolation and allowing people to return to work after five days instead of the current seven would make the situation worse. Their model showed that up to a third of people would remain infectious six days after a positive test.
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid wrote in the Daily Mail on Saturday that the new “restrictions on our freedom must be an absolute last resort”, citing the “enormous health, social and economic costs of the lockdowns”.
Hospital admissions in the UK, while on the rise, are well below last winter’s peak, a trend attributed to the country’s high vaccination rate and aggressive booster program.
Chris Hopson, executive director of NHS Providers, said in a lengthy Twitter post on Saturday that “there are far fewer seriously ill older people in need of critical care today” compared to a year ago. Deaths from covid have been stable at a fraction of the peak in early 2021.
In a December study, the HSA estimated that omicron, while more contagious than previous strains, appears to be less serious. A person with an omicron is up to 70% less likely to be admitted to the hospital, the agency said.
Still, the NHS is “under different pressure, possibly more” compared to a year ago due to a huge backlog of non-covid patients, Hopson said.
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