Work from home if you can; wear face masks when in public indoor spaces (except when eating, drinking or exercising); use the NHS app to prove you are vaccinated, or have recently tested negative, when entering venues with large crowds. New rules for England announced on Wednesday, and known as plan B, are intended to slow the spread of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, with UK cases said to be doubling every three days or faster. They follow strong advice to get a booster, with the programme extended to everyone over 40 who had their previous dose more than three months ago, and a plan to recruit 10,000 more vaccinators.
Concerns are high around levels of public compliance, with fears that the political row surrounding reports of parties in Westminster last winter, as well as more general fatigue concerning restrictions, could undermine people’s willingness to adjust their behaviour. The decision not to vaccinate children under 12 is also under attack, given that Covid case rates are highest in this age group and also among adults aged 35-49 – a cohort that includes many of these children’s parents. In the US and elsewhere, younger children are being vaccinated.
The government has a job to do in selling this new plan to the public (in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales nothing has changed). Given the pressures that the health service is already under in England, with almost six million people on waiting lists for surgery, it is important that the message to be careful, and to comply with rules on testing and self-isolation, cuts through. The bigger picture is that the world has fallen disastrously short when it comes to an international response to the pandemic. The elevated risk that follows from the virus’s continued circulation and evolution in unvaccinated populations must be confronted too.
But while insisting on the benefits of the new measures, ministers must also face the problems that they are bound to cause. Not everyone can work from home and, as previously, the instruction to stay away from workplaces (where possible) will hit some employees and businesses hard. Theatres, for example, are in the midst of a revival after two extraordinarily difficult years. Other leisure and hospitality businesses were counting on the festive season to give a boost to revenue. Ditto the travel industry. Just because the government has not banned meeting friends in restaurants or going on trips, it does not mean that it has no responsibility for the consequences of cancellations. Statutory sick pay is set far too low and must be increased so that people whose employers do not top it up can afford to stay off work when they are ill or isolating.
Businesses in the affected sectors are entitled to seek support. Ministers, including the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must find ways to share the burden. Some, after all, have gained from the changes to lifestyles that Covid has brought about: home owners, property investors, and digital and delivery businesses. As throughout the pandemic, the impact is hugely uneven. While for some people and organisations the latest tightening of the rules brings disappointment or inconvenience, for others it signals serious disruption and real threat.
