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NYE revellers should celebrate cautiously despite no new rules, Health Minister says & warns ‘we won’t hesitate to act’
New Year's Eve revellers should celebrate "cautiously" and "outside" even though there are NO new lockdown rules, a health minister has warned.
Gillian Keegan told party-ready Brits that Downing Street "won't hesitate to act" if the spread of Omicron causes hospitalisation numbers to soar.
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It comes one day after party hopefuls let out a sigh of relief when Boris Johnson put no new lockdown measures in place head of New Year's Eve.
His decision was backed by a string of hugely positive studies which show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.
Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.
The Sun's Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits' arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.
Even so, Minister of State for Care and Mental Health Ms Keegan urged Brits to take a Covid test before welcoming in the new year with friends and family.
She also suggested that gatherings be held outdoors or in "well-ventilated areas".
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Ms Keegan told Sky News: "We've always said act cautiously since this new variant came amongst us and is highly infectious.
"Many people will know somebody who has caught this over the Christmas period.
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"So do be cautious. Take a lateral flow test before you go out. Go to well-ventilated areas. I've been to a couple of outdoor parties actually.
"People have moved things to outside so just be cautious. But you know, do try to enjoy yourself as well. But cautiously."
Her warnings echoed that of the Health Secretary, who yesterday announced no legally-binding lockdown measures will be enforced before January 1.
In other Covid-19 news:
- Revellers danced in the streets and hit pubs and clubs after no new restrictions were announced for New Year’s Eve;
- Covid restrictions might not be introduced in the new year after the Health Secretary praised the booster jab uptake;
- New Year’s Eve revellers should take a lateral flow test and celebrate outside, Sajid Javid said;
- Professor Neil Ferguson has admitted he "oversimplified things" with his doomsday Covid predictions;
- The days of mass Covid deaths and hospitalisations are OVER thanks to the UK's triumphant jab rollout and careful restrictions, a top doc has claimed;
- Hospitality bosses praised Boris Johnson for saving New Year’s Eve - their busiest night of the year.
But Sajid Javid stressed Brits should "remain cautious", take a lateral flow and celebrate outside or in a well-ventilated room - as he urged everyone to get their jabs if they can.
Ms Keegan warned that while hospitalisation rates may appear high, many patients are infected without realising.
She added: "Many of those people going into hospital actually going in with COVID. So they actually get tested on the way in, but we do watch very carefully all of the data.
"And we have had some some good news that it does seem to be a bit milder in terms of severity.
"But we do watch the hospitalizations and we do watch the number of people in hospital all the time."
On whether the UK could go down to a five-day isolation, she said: "We did consider that which is why we very recently went from 10 days to seven days.
"So today if you test negative on day six and a seven, then your isolation period will end. So that's what we've done for now."
Ms Keegan said the Government is "awaiting" further information from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on whether to cut self isolation even further.
Hugely positive studies found that Omicron is a less-severe variant than Delta.
And one of the UK's top docs has claimed the days of mass Covid deaths and hospitalisations are OVER thanks to the UK's triumphant jab rollout and careful restrictions thus far.
Professor Sir John Bell - the regius professor of medicine at Oxford University - said last year's "horrific scenes" at hospitals where thousands suffered painful deaths from Covid-19 will remain a thing of the of the past.
Sir John said Britain's vaccine drive is responsible for keeping hospitalisation and death rates low - as the latest analysis shows admissions are DOWN more than 50 per cent in a week.
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A total of 8,474 people were in hospital with coronavirus on Monday - a huge drop on the massive 19,277 admissions recorded on the same day in 2020.
Sir John said the public had been "pretty responsible" in its response to the spread of the Omicron variant.
He added: "You look at the people on the streets, the roads are quiet, all that stuff.
"I think that's likely to continue for the next week as we see how this thing evolves."
Sir John said since the rollout of the vaccination programme there had been no increase the incidence of severe illness and death from the disease.
"The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago - intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely - that is now history in my view and I think we should reassured that that's likely to continue."
The highest daily cases recorded in 2020 was on December 29, when 81,472 people test positive.
The UK's deadliest day was on January 19 - which saw 1,359 people lose their lives.
But the Health Secretary stressed Brits should "remain cautious", take a lateral flow and celebrate outside or in a well-ventilated room - as he urged everyone to get their jabs if they can.
Sir John added: "The health minister has taken advice and looked at the data.
"I think his judgement where we should go in the next few days is probably fine," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"There are a lot of people who are aware that we are in the face of this large wave of disease.
"The behaviour of people in the UK, in England in particular, has been pretty responsible in terms of trying not to go out and spending a lot of time exposing yourself to the virus.
"You look at the people on the streets, the roads are quiet, all that stuff.
"I think that's likely to continue for the next week as we see how this thing evolves."
Health bosses have confirmed that Monday's hospitalisation figure - although higher than Sunday's - is no cause for concern.
The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago - intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely - that is now history in my view and I think we should reassured that that's likely to continue.
Professor Sir John Bell
There are 842 hospital-bound patients on ventilators - the lowest in two months - with winter-induced increase as seen last year.
And data has also shown that a third of patients who have Covid in hospital are actually being treated for something else.
The number going to hospital with the virus fell before Christmas — with 1,020 admitted on Christmas Eve compared to 1,252 the day before;
Fatality figures have also decreased, with 742 deaths reported in the last seven days - down 5.6 per cent on the week prior.
While it appears there has been a week-on-week rise in hospitalisations, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson stressed that the data is tricky to interpret.
He told BBC Breakfast there had been a 27 per cent increase in the number of hospital admissions nationally over the past week, and a 45 per cent increase in London.
He said: "In the previous peaks, we've had some very seriously ill older people who've got really significant respiratory problems and... they had to go into critical care.
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"The difference this time is we've got quite a few patients who are coming in - they might have fallen off their bike and knocked their head or broken their leg - and what's happening is they've got no symptoms but when they arrive, they're actually testing positive for Covid.
"Interestingly, the statistics that we use don't actually distinguish between those two.
"So we just need to be careful about overinterpreting the data.
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"The key bit... is that we still don't know exactly what's going to happen at the point when Omicron meets the older population.
"Clearly we've had a lot of intergenerational mixing over Christmas, so are we going to see a significant number of increases in terms of the number of patients coming into hospital with serious Omicron-related disease."
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