The UK government has been urged to enact its "rather weak" Covid Plan B by a leading epidemiologist amid rising cases, dwindling vaccination rates and a new variant thought to be up to 15% more transmissable.
Professor Tim Spector, of King's College London, said there was a "general sense of complacency" and warned that infections would start to rise among the most vulnerable people without additional contingency measures such as vaccine passports, which have been introduced in Scotland.
Boris Johnson has so far publicly resisted suggestions that he should order the implementation of plan B, a menu of measures which includes the use of passports at higher-risk venues and mass gatherings, as well as legally mandating the use of face masks in some settings.
However, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is reported to have contacted local authorities on Friday to canvass their level of support for the “immediate rollout of the winter plan – plan B”.
Scotland recorded 2,240 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data and The daily test positivity rate was 10.3%, up from 9.9% the previous day.
Around 68% of the population in England is now double vaccinated, compared with 71.4% in Scotland and Wales 86% in Portugal.
"Israel which started so well is having problems again showing that countries that end up with this 65% (rate) with no restrictions in place end up having problems," said Prof Spector, who heads up the ZOE Covid tracking app.
(vaccination rates across Europe)
"Ireland has come from way behind to 75% and they still have restrictions in place such as face coverings and no large events."
He said staff shortages were to blame for the slow pace of the roll-out out of Covid boosters, which he "thought was going to save us".
He said: "I think we are in no-man’s land. We have a sub-optimal vaccination rate. In England at least, we don’t seem to have any restrictions and those that are, are not enforced.
“There’s a general sense of complacency with high numbers of cases.
"Not only are you getting to these new strains which could make it even harder to control it but you are going to start to see more vulnerable (people) becoming infected.
“In the UK because we do do a lot more genetic testing than other countries, we are in a good position to find these (new variants) and the researchers have found that 10% of new cases have this new variant, which is quite similar to the original Delta variant but they believe it’s 10-15% more transmissible.
“The emergence of this is being suggested as due to our high levels of infection and the fact we are mixing partly immunised people who have been vaccinated with un-vaccinated people. These 80,000 (new cases) in the mix every day...some are fermenting these new variants much more than in other countries.
“It’s another reason we need to get these cases under control.
“So I think the government need to enforce their rather weak plan B as a minimum which enforces some of these measures and find way to bolster our flagging vaccination plan.”
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