Sajid Javid says Omicron is spreading in ‘multiple’ parts of England

[ad_1]

T

Health Minister Sajid Javid told MPs on Monday that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was now spreading to “multiple” parts of England.

In a statement, Mr. Javid confirmed that societal transmission of the variant was taking place across the country.

He said the 336 omicron cases detected so far include some not related to international travel.

“So we can conclude that there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England,” Javid told MPs.

About 52 countries have now reported the presence of the new variant, the health minister said, with 11 countries – including Romania, Mexico and Chile – declaring their first cases this weekend.

Read more

Ministers introduced new measures last week to curb the spread of the new strain, which scientists fear is more transmissible and possibly vaccine-resistant.

Mr Javid told MPs the government could not “say with certainty” whether Omicron will escape the Covid vaccines, or how severe the disease it causes.

“We are learning more about this new alternative all the time.

“Recent analysis from the UK Health Security Agency indicates that the interval between infection and infection may be shorter for the Omicron variant than for the Delta variant, but we do not yet have a complete picture of whether Omicron causes more serious disease or indeed how it interacts with vaccines.

“We can’t say for sure at this point if Omicron has the ability to get us out of our way to recovery.”

He added, “We leave nothing to chance. Our strategy is to buy ourselves time and strengthen our defenses while our world-leading scientists assess this new alternative and what it means for our fight against Covid-19.”

He said he expected the alternative to become dominant “within the next weeks or month” – but claimed the restrictions were unlikely to be in place until the new year.

Elsewhere, Boris Johnson has defended his decision to put countries in Africa on the red list even though experts have indicated the move will have a limited impact on transmission. “We are now tightening these measures as we see Omicron spreading around the world.”

The Prime Minister responded while visiting police in Merseyside: “We were the first country in the world to take decisive action to tackle Omicron. We automatically put about 10 countries, on the spot, on the red list and said that anyone coming from any country in the world would have to quarantine for a few days.”

“We are now tightening these measures as we see Omicron spreading around the world.”

Meanwhile, a leading health expert said Britons should work from home and avoid Christmas parties to stop the spread of the species this winter.

Professor Tim Spector, creator of the ZOE app, told Radio Times that the UK should be “more open about the people we are testing” and “urge more people to isolate them for at least a few days with cold-like symptoms”.

“Right now, we estimate that between one and three colds and one in four colds are actually due to Covid,” he said.

“So this is a very high percentage of people who are not yet interested in doing a lateral flow test, or getting a PCR test, going to parties and publishing it.

“So if that were ported to Omicron, we would be compiling this issue much faster than we need to.”

.

[ad_2]