Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people could do their bit by reducing the number of social contacts they have.
She said that even if our “vaccines appear to be effective, but we find that the variant is more highly transmissible, having lowish grade infection, but in very large numbers of the population, (it) could still be a significant impact on our hospitals.
“And of course, our behaviours in winter and particularly around Christmas we tend to socialise more so I think all of those will need to be taken into account.”
Asked about working from home, she said: “We’ve seen that not everybody has gone back to work and I’d like to think of it more in a general way, which is if we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay.
“So I think being careful, not socialising when we don’t particularly need to and particularly going and getting those booster jobs which, of course, people will now be able to have at a three-month interval from their primary course.”
PM Boris Johnson defended England’s new coronavirus rules, which came into force this morning.
“The measures taking effect today are proportionate and responsible, and will buy us time in the face of this new (Omicron) variant,” he said.
“Vaccines and boosters remain our best line of defence, so it is more important than ever that people come forward when eligible to get boosted.”
