Rise in Covid cases was EXPECTED after No10 dropped final restrictions in England, Sajid Javid says
Rise in Covid cases was EXPECTED after No10 dropped final restrictions in England, Sajid Javid says
Health Secretary said that the UK remains in a ‘very good position’ in the fight against the coronavirus Mr Javid said that a ‘handful’ of cases of the so-called Deltacron variant had been identified in the UK Discussing the situation with Sky News, he said: ‘We keep the situation very carefully under review’
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A rise in Covid infections was to be ‘expected’ following the easing of Covid restrictions in England, the Health Secretary insisted today.
Sajid Javid said that the UK remains in a ‘very good position’ but he urged adults eligible for a booster vaccine to come forward and get the jab.
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics Covid Infections Survey showed an increase in cases across the whole of the UK.
The surveillance report also found infections were rising in England before all Covid laws were lifted on Freedom Day, suggesting the transition towards ‘living with Covid’ is not solely to blame for the latest surge.
Meanwhile, Mr Javid said that a ‘handful’ of cases of the so-called Deltacron variant had been identified in the UK, but were ‘not of particular concern’. Roughly 99.9 per cent of all infections in Britain are of the Omicron variant, he added.
Mr Javid told Sky News: ‘We keep the situation very carefully under review.
‘There’s no other variant of concern out there that is an issue at this point in time.
‘We have seen some rises in infections over the last week but given the increase in social mixing this was to be expected.’
Asked about cases of Deltacron in the UK, Mr Javid told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think there’s only a handful of cases here in the UK, it’s not something that’s of particular concern to us at this point in time.
‘We do keep the situation under review on a daily basis, but the dominant variant in the UK – 99.9 per cent of infections are Omicron infections.
‘And whilst the rate has gone up modestly in the last few days, that’s to be expected as we are now open as a country and there’s more social mixing, but there’s nothing in the data at this point in time that gives us any cause for concern.’
He told Times Radio that officials continue to monitor infections, case numbers, hospital admissions and hospital capacities.
‘Taking all of that together, we remain in an overall very good position,’ he said.
‘We’re the most open country in Europe and that’s happened because of the country’s approach and the British people’s approach to vaccination.
‘But also the support that we have from all the different treatments that the NHS is now able to offer and on our testing offer where we focus very much on the most vulnerable.’
Modelling by the agency estimates that infections started to rebound on February 19, three days before the key milestone. There were 178,300 new infections that day, according to the ONS, compared to the 28,344 officially reported by the Government’s Covid dashboard
Overall in England the ONS estimates that 2.07million (one in 25) people were infected on March 5, but in the East, London and South East, the rate is closer to one in 20
He added: ‘The most important thing that we can all be doing personally is to make sure we are vaccinated, and whilst it’s great that when it comes to boosters that we have eight out of 10 adults that are eligible boosted – which is fantastic to see, one of the highest rates in the world – there are still there two out of 10 that are not, and it’d be great for those people to come forward not just only to protect themselves, but their communities too.’
There were 72,898 cases of Covid reported in the UK on Friday.
On February 24, when most of the remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England came to an end, there were 38,933 cases reported.
According to the ONS survey, in the week ending March 5, one in every 25 people in England had Covid in the UK, the survey suggests.
One in every 13 people in Northern Ireland and one in every 18 people in Scotland were estimated to have Covid-19, as were one in every 30 people in Wales.
There are also almost 12,000 people in hospital with Covid-19.
England and Northern Ireland have already removed all remaining laws, replacing the requirement to self-isolate with guidance instead, but Scotland and Wales have taken a more cautious approach.
Nicola Sturgeon plans to remove most of the remaining curbs in Scotland on March 21, but until then Scots are still required to wear face masks on public transport, indoor venues and secondary schools.
Businesses also have to keep customer contact details and cooperate with Test and Trace for another two weeks.
Even after March 21, Scots who test positive legally have to self-isolate for five days but the Scottish Government says it is keeping the length of quarantine under review. Free testing will also continue in some form beyond April.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s chief medical officer said today that ministers will be advised to take a ‘cautious approach’ to lifting the remaining coronavirus restrictions.
Professor Sir Gregor Smith said he is ‘keeping a close eye on’ rising infection levels and hospital cases. However, he said there is some early evidence the hospital admission rate is beginning to ‘top out’.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Sir Gregor revealed ministers will make a decision on whether to go ahead with lifting the face mask requirement shortly.
He said data shows some older people are beginning to adapt their behaviour by reducing their contacts slightly, while the use of face masks is also up.
Asked what advice he would give to ministers, he said: ‘I think that a cautious approach at this point in time is probably the right approach, and we’re already seeing the public adopting those additional protections.’
In the first week of March, an estimated one in every 18 Scots had Covid-19, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
Sir Gregor said: ‘We’ve been keeping a close eye on these for the last three weeks, and clearly when you see cases begin to increase like this it does give you a little bit of concern.’
Hospital occupancy began to rise around February 14, he said.
He added: ‘We’re seeing more older population becoming impacted on this occasion, and that’s leading to some longer lengths of stay, which is driving occupancy up as well.’
Sir Gregor said there are ‘some hopeful signs’ the hospital admission rate ‘has begun to kind of top out just a little bit over the course of the latter end of last week’.
Wales still has two more phases of its unlocking to go before all restrictions are lifted. From March 28, PCRs won’t be available for the general public and lateral flows will only be free to people with Covid symptoms.
People will still need to self-isolate if they test positive until the end of June when it will change to advice. Contact tracing will also be scrapped in summer and lateral flows will only be available to the most vulnerable.
