London: Long queues were seen Monday outside walk-in vaccination centres across the United Kingdom. People queued for their booster vaccine doses, even as the government’s work from home guidance came in force as part of measures to tackle the ‘tidal wave’ of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. British Prime Minister also confirmed that the country has registered its first Omicron death.
Johnson warned of a ‘tidal wave’ of the highly transmissible variant on its way as he issued an urgent televised address Sunday night. He announced an enhanced Omicron Emergency Boost campaign, which sets an end of the year deadline for all adults aged over 18 to be offered a third top-up dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. This brings forward his previous timeline of January 2022 for this target in an effort to build a ‘wall of vaccine protection’ against the new variant.
“I am afraid we are now facing an emergency in our battle with the new variant, Omicron. We must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection to keep our friends and loved ones safe,” said Johnson.
“No-one should be in any doubt: there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming. ‘’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need. But the good news is that our scientists are confident that with a third dose – a booster dose – we can all bring our level of protection back up,” added Johnson.
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UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid reiterated the message Monday. He said that the Omicron variant is ‘spreading at a phenomenal rate’ and infections are continuing to double every two to three days. “We are clearly once again in a race between the vaccine and the virus,” Javid said.
Ten people in England are in hospital with the new Omicron variant which was first detected in South Africa. However, no deaths have yet been reported related to Omicron in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, people in England are now expected to work from home if they can, as part of the government’s Plan B guidance. The change brings England in line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Plan B also means stricter face covering rules for indoor spaces and compulsory Covid-19 vaccination pass for venues will come in from Wednesday.
More than half a million booster jabs and third doses were administered Saturday by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It was the second day that has happened since the booster rollout began in the country.
A further 1,239 new cases of Omicron were announced in the UK Sunday, bringing the total number of UK Omicron cases to more than 3,000 and the total number of Covid-19 infections to 48,854.