Stricter Covid restrictions could last three months, SAGE report suggests

Tougher lockdown restrictions could last until spring under one scenario proposed by government scientists.

Boris Johnson will decide on Monday what measures are needed to tackle the Omicron Covid strain, with questions remaining on New Year's Eve.

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The government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) panel examined models looking at step 2 restrictions that could last up to three months.

This includes a ban on household mixing indoors, with the rule of six outdoors – from December 28 or January 1 to January 15, 28 or March 28.

A series of hugely positive studies show that Omicron IS is milder than other types, with the first official UK report showing the risk of hospital admission is 50 to 70 per cent lower than Delta.

Covid booster shots protect against Omicron and offer the best chance of weathering the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.

Sun's Jabs Army campaign is helping to get vital extra vaccines into Britons' arms to avert the need for new restrictions.

Warwick University's models have not been examined by ministers, who are waiting for more data before deciding on any additional measures.

A Downing Street source played down the possibility of the last of the quarterly dates being implemented as the modeling has not been seen by ministers. Telegraph reports.

An article produced by the Spi-MO modeling panel for Sage states that “rapidly implemented Step 2 measures reduce peak hospital pressure to approximately half the level under Plan B alone”.

Minutes from a Dec. 23 Sage meeting warned of a major wave of hospitalizations in the stricken country.

It said admissions could be “similar to or higher than previous peaks”, including January last year.

“The earlier interventions take place, and the stricter they are, the more likely they are to be effective,” the scientists said.

The head of Britain's Health Security Agency, Jenny Harries, said there was a “glimmer of Christmas hope” in the data published on Thursday suggesting the Omicron could potentially cause less severe disease than the Delta variant.

The NHS will continue to roll out vaccines on Christmas Day and Boxing Day this year in a bid to protect people from Omicron.

The number of deaths in England of people with the Omicron variant has risen to 29, according to the UKHSA.

HOPE FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Hospital admissions in England for people with confirmed or suspected Omicron rose to 366.

But in news that will cause some festive cheer, it is suggested that Omicron is disappearing from South Africa.

South African scientists are confident that the Omicron outbreak there is subsiding and could last only a few months in total.

Infections have increased over the past week and admissions have not reached expected levels as hospitals “never reached capacity”.

Francois Venter, a medical professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, predicted that at the current rate of decline, Omicron would be “virtually gone” from all of South Africa by the end of January. The times reports.

And Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who is leading the country's pandemic response, said he expected “almost any other pandemic” [country] follow the same path.”

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed that one in 35 Britons currently have Covid, while one in 20 Londoners tested positive in the week to December 19.

It amounts to a record number of weekly infections with 1.7 million infections affected by the virus.

The 122,186 cases reported yesterday mark a stark new high and are 2.8 percent higher than the day before.

The rates are also 31.3 percent higher than last Friday.