the times | Monday December 6 2021 2GM 7News
Only third of housebound
people have had a booster
Kat LayNearly two thirds of housebound
people are yet to have a Covid booster,
it was reported last night.
An unpublished Whitehall analysis
shows that 170,000 people out of the
estimated 470,000 unable to travel for
jabs had been given top-up shots by the
end of last week, according to The Daily
Telegraph. It comes after some GPs opt-
ed out of delivering booster shots.
An NHS spokesman said: “Local
NHS and GP teams are contacting
their eligible housebound patients, and
we are working with St John’s Amb-
ulance to give local areas additional
support. We are also providing addi-
tional funding to help local teams
secure additional staff so that all elig-ible housebound patients are offered a
booster as quickly as possible.”
More than 20 million people in the
UK have had a booster dose. The gov-
ernment recorded 20,258,417 booster or
third doses delivered as of yesterday, a
rise of 448,975 from Saturday. There
have been more than 51 million first
jabs and 46.5 million second doses.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary,
pledged to “super charge” the booster
programme in the face of Omicron.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination
and Immunisation said all adults would
now be eligible for boosters and re-
duced the gap between second and
third doses from six months to three.
The NHS has said, however, that it
may not be ready to offer jabs under the
new criteria until December 13.Garden, in London, amid a wave of Omicron cases. There are now 246 confirmed cases of the new variant across the UKBoris Johnson is facing renewed
pressure to come clean about claims
that his staff broke Covid-19 rules by
partying in No 10 after Dominic Raab,
the deputy prime minister, said
that it would have been “the wrong
thing to do”.
The prime minister has not denied
reports that members of his team held a
party in Downing Street on Decem-
ber 18 last year when London was
under Tier 3 restrictions, but he has
insisted that no rules were broken.
There were also reports of up to three
other parties being held in Downing
Street despite restrictions. Under Tier 3
all indoor mixing was banned except
within household bubbles.
When asked yesterday whether he
was aware of the party Raab said that
the reports were “unsubstantiated” but
that if they turned out to be correct
then there would have been a breach.
“If something unsubstantiated from
anonymous sources actually material-
ised, then of course it would be wrong,”
he told The Andrew Marr Show. His an-
swer came after he repeatedly dodged
the question. Initially he refused to
comment on reports of the party. Raab
said: “Until there is something substan-
tiated, until it is more than anonymous
sources, I think we are chasing
shadows. If there is a breach of
the rules, there is a breach of
the rules. But I don’t know the
full facts because I wasn’t
there.”
He added: “It’s impossible to
answer the charge on that basis,
only that we are clear the
rules were being followed.
Of course, if there was a
formal party held, of
course that is something
that is clearly contrary to
the guidance. If anyone
held a party that is con-News
testing firms ‘conning’ customers
Pressure mounts
on PM over claim
of Christmas party
trary to the rules, of course that is the
wrong thing to do.”
According to the Daily Mirror, about
40 to 50 Downing Street staff packed
“cheek by jowl” into a medium-sized
room for a “boozy” Christmas party.
The Metropolitan Police said that it
was considering complaints from the
Labour MPs Neil Coyle and Barry Gar-
diner about Christmas parties allegedly
held last year in breach of Covid rules.
The Met said it did not routinely in-
vestigate “retrospective breaches of the
Covid-19 regulations” but would “con-
sider the correspondence received”.
Raab faced ridicule after he told An-
drew Marr that the police “don’t nor-
mally look back and investigate things
that have taken place a year ago”.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secre-
tary, said he didn’t know “anything
about the details of the party” when
asked about it yesterday. “I don’t really
know what party people are talking
about,” he said during a visit to Pen-
shaw, near Sunderland. “All I would say
is that No 10 events are done under
strict working conditions and that
would be the case, certainly.”
Raab said that he would not be hold-
ing a Christmas party at the Ministry of
Justice, even though it would be per-
mitted under current rules. He said that
he would be having “appropriate drinks
at a smaller scale” and urged employers
to show “common sense” when orga-
nising Christmas celebrations.
“The rules are very clear,” he said.
“People can go in and have Christ-
mas parties, of course employers will
want to think common sense about
how they do that. The
government wants people
to be able to enjoy
Christmas this year.
People should feel free
to go and enjoy those
celebrations and
every employer will
think about the
right way to do it
and I’m the same as
everybody else.”Matt DathanREUTERSRaab initially refused to
be drawn on the claimsnew variant will push them ‘over edge’
shows that a third of patients requiring
urgent care at hospital A&Es waited for
more than four hours.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of
NHS Providers, which represents
health service leaders, told BBC
Radio 4: “Everywhere you look there
are significant amounts of pressure and
we are now at the point where we have
to take quick emergency measures. The
task is getting harder because of the de-
mands of the booster campaign.
“Following the longest and deepest
financial squeeze in the history of the
health service the NHS has been un-
able to build up the capacity that it
needs to deal with growing demand.”
A survey of 451 NHS leaders in En-
gland carried out by the NHS Federa-
tion last month found that patient
safety was being put at “unacceptably
high” risk as A&E units and GP surger-
ies struggled to cope with demand.A further 86 cases of the Omicron
variant were reported in the UK
yesterday, taking the total to 246. On
Saturday there were 160 cases, mean-
ing there was an increase of more than
50 per cent in a day.
The UK Health Security Agency
(UKHSA), the government agency re-
sponsible for public health protection,
said that 68 of the new cases were re-
ported in England and 18 in Scotland,
taking the Scottish total to 48.
The government is urging eligible
people to get their flu jab by December
10 to maximise protection over
Christmas and help prevent further
pressures on the NHS.
In particular, pregnant women and
people with underlying health condi-
tions are being urged to come forward.
The waiting list for NHS treatment
has reached 5.8 million, according to
the latest figures. NHS data for OctoberHow Britain compares
Percentage of population who have
received at least one vaccine dose
(total doses administered in brackets)Daily
(Dec 4)
First dose
25,Boosters
(daily)
448,First dose
51.1m
Second
46.5mSecond
35,Total
20,258,People
vaccinated
in UKSource: Our World in Data (latest figures
available) and gov.uk. Note: Selected
countries. Figures as of 6pm yesterdayUAE 98.1% (21.5m)Portugal 89% (16.8m)Spain 82.2% (77.2m)Canada 80.8% (61.9m)Italy 78.5% (98.4m)Ireland 77.5% (8.3m)
France 77% (107m)UK 75.2% (117.9m)Sweden 74. 9 % (16.1m)