Boris Johnson has warned his Cabinet that a “huge spike” of Omicron is coming, according to Downing Street.
Giving an account of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister said a huge spike of Omicron was coming and the measures we aim to introduce as part of Plan B were balanced and proportionate, helping to reduce transmission while we ramp up the booster programme.”
Cabinet took place virtually for the first time in months, the spokesman said, “in light of the increasing number of cases and our advice to work from home when possible”.
Asked why Mr Johnson was not planning further measures despite the incoming “spike”, the spokesman argued the link between cases and severe illness had been “severely … reduced” by vaccines.
“We are not being complacent, which is why we’ve brought forward drastically the target for getting everyone boosted,” he said.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told Cabinet that a “significant increase in hospitalisations” from Omicron is expected, No 10 said.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Prof Whitty told ministers the doubling time for the variant remained between two and three days.
“He said it was too early to say whether cases were reducing or plateauing in South Africa but there was no reliable evidence from South African scientists of a peak in case rates,” the spokesman said.
“He added that it also remained too early to say how severe the Omicron variant was but that we can expect a significant increase in hospitalisations as cases increase.”
The growth rate of the Omicron variant seems to be “shortening rather than lengthening”, said Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UK Health Security Agency.
“We have been studying this virus for three weeks today and in that time period we have shown that in the UK this is growing very fast, with a growth rate initially two to three days and that growth rate seems to be shortening, rather than lengthening at the moment,” she told the Science and Technology Committee of MPs.
She added: “We are concerned with the large volume of individuals who are being infected every day in the population that we are going to have a very difficult four weeks ahead with cases in the community which will, of course, cause individuals to stay off work and school, and then those cases to transfer into admissions to hospital.”
