Boris Johnson is under pressure to re-introduce covid restrictions to prevent the NHS stumbling into a winter crisis.
The chief executive of the NHS Confederation in England has called on the Government to bring back Covid restrictions abandoned by the Tory leader to protect hospitals from the rising number of covid cases.
While measures like the mandatory use of face masks and working from home were kept by the Scottish government when lockdown ended they have been dropped in England where the UK government has responsibility for health.
UK-wide the number of new daily covid cases has been over 40,000 for the last week, with 43,738 new infections reported on Tuesday with another 223 deaths recorded, the highest since March.
Matthew Taylor, of the NHS confederation, said: “What we’re facing here is a perfect storm. Winter is always very tight for the NHS for a number of reasons, you add in then the number of Covid patients in hospital and that number seems now to be rising.
Taylor recommended: “Mask wearing in crowded places, avoiding unnecessary indoor gatherings, I think working from home if you can.
“I don’t underestimate that these are inconveniences but we have to make a choice if we can see what is almost inevitable down the line.”
Both the UK and the Scottish governments have said they are carefully monitoring the rise in covid figures and the Prime Minister and devolved First Ministers held roundtable talks on covid recovery this week.
Nicola Sturgeon has revealed the Scottish Government is monitoring a new variant of the Delta strain which has caused a rise in infections.
The First Minister took to social media to urge Scots to practice good personal hygiene in a bid to prevent a spread of the deadly virus.
According to the latest data around six per cent of cases have been sequenced to a new type of covid variant.
' Delta Plus ' or AY.4.2 is believed to be spreading rapidly, however not as fast as the original Delta variant when it hit the UK earlier this year.
However, UK Cabinet Minister Kwasi Kwarteng has said he would “rule out” a further lockdown.
He was asked about comments made by government adviser Professor Stephen Reicher who said the prospect of further lockdowns could not be discounted.
Kwarteng said: “No, I would rule that out.
“Throughout this process, there’ve been people saying the lockdown was unnecessary, there have been other people saying we should continue the lockdown. We’ve really plotted a path between those two extremes.”
Kwarteng added: “I think it’s worked and that’s why, one of the reasons, we’ve got the fastest-growing economy in the G7, it’s 7.5% this year, that’s the prediction, which is faster than any other comparable country, certainly in the G7.
“There’s a reason for that, and that’s because we’ve managed to successfully roll out the vaccine and reopen the economy, and that’s something that I think we’re very grateful for.”
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