The Times - UK - 04.12.2021

14 2GM Saturday December 4 2021 | the times

News

Plans for Britain’s “booster programme
on steroids” may not begin for another
ten days, NHS bosses said yesterday.
But GPs will be allowed to cut the
number of health checks they offer
patients in order to focus on giving
coronavirus jabs, while medical and
nursing students will be offered extra
shifts on the programme alongside
military personnel.
The UK Health Security Agency said
last night that it had identified 75 more
cases of the Omicron variant in
England, bringing the total to 104.
Officials said that the people and their
contacts had been asked to isolate and
work was under way to establish any
links to travel.
Omicron cases have now been
detected in the East Midlands, east of
England, London, northeast, north-
west, southeast, southwest and West
Midlands. One case has also been
found in Wales and 29 in Scotland.
Boris Johnson said that Christmas
would go ahead “as normally as
possible”. Speaking at a by-election
campaign visit to Oswestry, Shropshire,
the prime minister said that people did
not need to cancel parties or nativity
plays.
On Monday the Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)
said that in response to the new variant,
the booster programme should be
expanded to all over-18s, and the gap
between second doses and boosters
halved from six months to three.
Announcing the expansion Sajid
Javid, the health secretary, said it would
be a “booster programme on steroids”,
with all adults in England offered jabs
by the end of January.
A letter from Amanda Pritchard,
chief executive of NHS England, to
regional health bosses and national
vaccine programme leaders, says that
patients may not be able to book
appointments under the new schedule
until December 13. They will then be
invited in age bands, rather than all at
once.
Medical and nursing students are
being invited to deliver jabs, while
volunteering organisations are step-
ping up recruitment efforts. A request
has been made to the MoD for
military personnel “to provide rapid

deployment vaccination teams across

England”.

The letter says GPs will be allowed to

postpone health checks for over-75s

and new patients to free up time. Re-

quirements to monitor patients with

certain health conditions under the

“quality and outcomes framework” will

be suspended, although they will still

need to deliver vaccination and cervical

screening. And it confirms that the

amount GPs and pharmacies are paid

per vaccination will also be increased

over the next two months.

Public health bosses said yesterday

that they had seen “a strong early

signal” from laboratory testing that the

Omicron variant was starting to spread

in Britain. Some PCR tests can detect

the variant because they search for

three pieces of genetic material from

the virus and one piece is missing in

Omicron.

The proportion of tests showing

this result has increased from about

0.1 per cent to about 0.3 per cent in the

past week, the health security agency

said, apparently growing faster than

other variants in circulation. A

spokesman for the agency said that

“can be considered a strong early

signal” but “cannot be interpreted as a

change in transmissibility or an

increase in the absolute number of

cases of the variant”.

Professor Adam Finn, a member of

the JCVI, said that people should avoid

parties. They should also be encour-

aged to work from home, wear masks

and take frequent lateral flow tests.

Separate documents from the Spi-M

panel of epidemic modellers, prepared

before the variant, predict that it will

take at least five years for Covid-19 to

settle to “a predictable endemic state”

— where the virus lingers but does not

threaten the health system.

6 How well prepared a person’s im-

mune defences are to fend off a new

coronavirus variant depends on which

strains they have been exposed to, a

study has shown.

It’s Christmas non-party time,

Giles Coren, page 30

Vaccination passports and compulsory

jabs, letters, page 32

In a petri dish deep within a biosecure

lab at Porton Down, an experiment is

slowly unfolding that will shape politics

for the rest of the winter.

A small live sample of the Omicron

variant arrived in Britain from South

Africa this week, allowing scientists at

the UK Health Security Agency to start

work on answering the crucial ques-

tion: will the strain evade the immunity

produced by vaccines?

Despite the urgency of the question,

the experiment is one that cannot be

rushed. The results will not be ready for

at least a fortnight, and may even take

until after Christmas.

In the absence of answers, Boris

Johnson finds himself — as he has so

It’s behind you Rehearsals at York Theatre for the pantomime Cinderella, which

News Coronavirus

Booster programme ‘on steroids’

The national picture

How many people have Covid-19?

There were 50,584 new cases reported

yesterday, bringing the total so far to

10,379,647 or 155.4 for every 1,000 people

Daily

cases

1% increase from seven days ago

(based on seven-day moving average)

How many are in hospital?

There are 7, 3 7 3 patients in hospital being

treated. 895 patients are on ventilators.

An additional 787 patients have been

admitted, down 3.8 per cent in the seven

days to November 29 when this data

was last updated

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

0

20,

40,

60,

Seven-day

average

National

R number

1.0 to 1.

Hospital admissions

0

2,

4,

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

Seven-day

average

How many have died?

Yesterday, there were 143 deaths reported,

bringing the total number of deaths in the

past seven days to 831. The rolling average

number of daily deaths is 118.7, down from

125.3 a day a week ago

Deaths

0

500

1,

1,

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

Seven-day

average

How Britain compares

Percentage of population who have

received at least one vaccine dose

(total doses administered in brackets)

First dose

51m

Second

46.5m

Boosters

total

19,436,

People

vaccinated

in UK

UAE 98.1% (21.5m)

Portugal 89% (16.8m)

Spain 82.1% (76.9m)

Canada 80.3% (60.9m)

Italy 78.4% (97.4m)

Australia 77.8% (39.5m)

France 77% (106.4m)

Brazil 76.8% (311.9m)

UK 75.1% (117m)

Kat Lay Health Editor
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent

The new focus on

many times before during the pan-

demic — having to take decisions while

facing the unknown.

Will Omicron sweep the country and

become the dominant strain, leading to

a fourth wave and a surge in hospitali-

sations? Or will it peter out over time

and be forgotten, consigned to history

with other variants.

And on a more cynical level will the

latest Covid crisis — and Johnson’s ral-

lying cry for another “Great British

Vaccination Effort” — help shore up

the government and Downing Street

after a torrid few weeks of missteps?

As one cabinet minister said: “We’re

in a remarkable position, we’ve had a

wobble but now we’re back on Covid.

It’s stronger ground for us. It should put

us in a good place for the new year.”

At cabinet on Tuesday, ministers said

Johnson was clear that he did not want

to “pull the shutters down”. They were

given a briefing by Chris Whitty, the

chief medical officer for England, and

Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health

Security Agency, who urged caution

but pointed out that so far no patients

The PM is on safe turf

for now but dangers are

lurking, write Steven

Swinford, Chris Smyth

and Oliver Wright

Switzerland dropped its ten-day quar-
antine on arrivals from the UK last
night in a big boost for winter holidays.
The U-turn comes less than a week
after ministers in the country said they
would force arrivals to self-isolate in
response to the discovery of Omicron
cases in the UK.
All arrivals will need to present a neg-
ative PCR test on arrival and take a fur-
ther test, either PCR or antigen,
between day four and seven in
the country. The results
must be reported to the
cantonal authorities.
Richard Sinclair,
chief executive of
SNO, a travel agency,
said: “[It] looks like
the knee has been
un-jerked and it’s
nice to get a bit of
good news.”

Ski holidays saved by Swiss U-turn

The country has been suffering with

a fresh wave of the virus and has one of

the lowest rates of vaccination in west-

ern Europe, with 67 per cent of the pop-

ulation double jabbed.

Alain Berset, the Swiss health minis-

ter, warned the Delta variant was still

not under control and that the country

faced an outbreak of Omicron. Inten-

sive care beds in some regions are

already at capacity.

“The situation is very serious,” said

Berset. “We didn’t want this, but we

have to work with reality. Some

hospitals have already

reached their capacity.”

Myriam Ziesack, of

the Swiss tourism

office in the UK,

said: “It was rather

unfortunate tim-

ing, that the first

major snowfall in

Switzerland coin-

cided with the

arrival of the new

Covid variant, leading

to an introduction of

quarantine for arrivals

from the UK.”

Ski companies had already been

cancelling departures because of the

restrictions. Inghams, the UK’s second

biggest tour operator, axed all Decem-

ber holidays to the country. It is not

known if they will be reinstated.

It is the second time in a week that

Swiss authorities were forced to per-

form a U-turn. On Tuesday, the quar-

antine rules were updated to exempt

people transiting through the country.

Tens of thousands of Britons faced

having ski trips to France and Italy can-

celled after it said that travellers arriv-

ing into its airports would have to self-

isolate even if they were moving on to

another country.

Those due to travel to Geneva air-

port, which is on the border with

France, would have been worst

affected. It is the busiest hub for skiers

heading to some of France’s most popu-

lar ski resorts, including Avoriaz,

Morzine, Les Gets, Megève, Méribel,

Courchevel and Val Thorens.

Although Geneva airport is entirely

in Switzerland it has a French sector,

used by passengers travelling to and

from French destinations. This is not

used for flights from the UK.

Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent

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Alain Berset, the health
minister, warned that
some hospitals are full