Boris Johnson will hold a crunch Cabinet meeting on Covid rules as England’s restrictions face an official review tomorrow.
But the chance of any new restrictions this week appear slim to nil after a Tory minister today insisted “Plan B is working”.
At least half a dozen NHS trusts have declared critical incidents as thousands of health staff isolate due to the Omicron variant.
Whitehall departments have been asked to draw up backup plans for 25% of staff being absent - which could bring in troops.
Boris Johnson is expected to be briefed on the data today, and hold a Cabinet meeting tomorrow morning.
He or Health Secretary Sajid Javid will then formally update MPs at around 4pm tomorrow, the day England’s Covid rules are officially reviewed. Mr Johnson will hold the first PMQs since Christmas at the later time of 3pm tomorrow.
Yet the PM's spokesman said today: “At the moment we don’t see any data to suggest further restrictions would be the right approach.”
That is despite more than 218,000 people testing positive for Covid in the UK on December 29.
Vaccines Minister Maggie Throup insisted Plan B "is working", pointing to figures showing fewer Covid-19 patients are in hospital compared with last year.
She said: “The Prime Minister has said that Plan B is working, there will be a Cabinet meeting today, and I don’t see any reason why we need to change.
“It’s important we do follow the data, we’ve done that all along and we’ll continue to do that.”
Plan B involves advising people to work from home, ordering masks on public transport and shops, and forcing punters at nightclubs and other venues to prove they’ve had a vaccine or negative test.
Despite Ms Throup’s comments it’s thought the Cabinet meeting is only tomorrow.
Over 14,000 patients are in hospital with Covid in England, double the rate on Christmas Day though less than the 25,000 this time last year.
Yet No10 said today: "There’s clearly evidence that [Omicron] does appear to be a milder disease than what came before... There are various studies on that which differ slightly on exactly how much."
And infectious diseases expert Professor Neil Ferguson today said he believed cases in the capital may have levelled out.
"I'm cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18-50 age group, which has been driving the Omicron epidemic, may possibly have plateaued,” he told the BBC.
“It's too early to say whether they're going down yet.
“With an epidemic which has been spreading so quickly and reaching such high numbers, it can't sustain those numbers forever.
“So we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks.
“Whether they then drop precipitously or we see a pattern a bit like we saw with Delta back in July - of an initial drop and then quite a high plateau - remains to be seen."
NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor said hospital admissions seemed to have "perhaps plateaued in London”.
But he added “it's rising across the rest of Britain" and for many hospitals, "the most pressing element of all" was staff absences.
He also slammed a “politicised attempt” to downplay the scale of the problem in hospitals.
Mr Taylor told Times Radio: “We've got to recognise in the next few weeks at least, things are very, very difficult.
“And I think that one thing that people in the health service find difficult is it does seem as though there's a kind of almost politicised attempt to suggest that things aren't as difficult as they are.”
Vaccines Minister Ms Throup tried to downplay critical incidents, saying “they can be very short-term”.
“Sometimes it's just a matter of hours that the critical incident is in place for, other times it's longer”, she said.
Ms Throup admitted she didn’t know how many hospitals currently have critical incidents in force.
She told Sky News: “It is fast-moving, that’s why it would be wrong of me to say a number.
“Because quite shortly there could be another one, or another Trust could actually say ‘no, we’re back on track now, we’re okay’.”
Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper slammed the minister, saying the “Government is asleep at the wheel”.
She said: “Our hospitals are at breaking point and schools are spread thin, yet hapless Ministers haven't got a clue about the true extent of the problems in these settings.
"It's high time the Government gets a grip on this. Families deserve reassurance that their children's education won't be disrupted and that loved ones can get the care they need, when they need it."
No10 confirmed Whitehall departments could bring in troops to plug staffing gaps caused by Omicron.
The PM’s spokesman said: “All departments have been asked to look at how they would mitigate against large scale absences across their relevant workforces up to 25%.
“In some circumstances that might require making a Military Aid request. In other circumstances it might not.
“There’s no blanket requirement for military aid.”
Ms Throup also suggested self-isolation times for people with Covid could be cut from seven to five days if they test negative.
She said: “At the moment the evidence doesn't show that it would be safe to reduce to five days, but we're continually monitoring the evidence and the data.
“And if appropriate, then we'd look to take further measures to make sure people can get back to work as quickly as possible.
“But it's important, I'm sure your listeners will recognise, it's important that people are free from the virus when they do return to work.”
