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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Sunday that all people over the age of 18 across England would be offered reinforcements to Covid-19 until the new year, in response to what he said was a “wave of Omicron contagion” approaching the country.
Speaking in a televised address, Johnson warned that two doses of the vaccine were no longer “enough to give the level of protection we all need.” As a result, the government launched an extension of the introduction of the amplifier, called “Omicron emergency amplification”.
“Everyone who qualifies aged 18 and over in England will have the opportunity to receive an ancillary medicine before the new year,” he said, adding that the NHS reservation system will be open to the remaining younger groups from Wednesday.
In late November, in response to a new variant, The government has narrowed the gap between the second and third doses from six to three months and promised that all adults would be offered a sting by the end of January.
Johnson added that he had spoken to decentralized administrations to confirm that the UK government would provide additional support to speed up vaccination in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
According to figures released Dec. 12, more than 23 million people across the United Kingdom had an additional or third dose.
Accelerated deployment would be aided by deploying 42 military planning teams in each region, additional vaccine sites and mobile units, and extending opening hours to keep clinics open seven days a week, Johnson said, “with multiple appointments early in the morning, in the evening, and on weekends training thousands more volunteer vaccinators ”.
The prime minister acknowledged that “some other appointments” within the health service “will need to be postponed until the new year” so that the NHS can meet a new, more ambitious goal.
“If we don’t do that now, the Omicron wave could be so big that layoffs and disorders, such as the loss of cancer treatment terms, would be even greater next year,” he added.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government has the support of the opposition in an effort to speed up the incentive program, saying it is also important to take advantage of the Christmas holidays to bring the vaccine to eligible children.
“The arrival of a new worrying variant is a reminder that the pandemic is not over. And vaccines are the best weapon in our fight, ”he said.
The announcement came after the confirmation of the first Omicron cases in British hospitals and the decision of the country’s chief medical officers to increase Covid’s alert level from three to four.
IN joint statement Confirming the decision, the CMOs for England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland together with prof. Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of the NHS of England, warned that the new variant now poses a risk to health services.
“Early evidence shows that Omicron is spreading much faster than Delta and that protection against symptomatic disease vaccines from Omicron is reduced,” they said. “The severity data will become clearer in the coming weeks, but hospitalizations from Omicron are already happening – and they are likely to increase rapidly.”
Covid alert levels serve to provide ministers with an assessment of the coronavirus situation in the United Kingdom. The fourth level, which is the second largest warning, indicates that coronavirus transmission is “high” while the pressure on health services is “significant or growing”.
The United Kingdom Health Safety Agency said an additional 1,239 Omicron cases were reported across the UK on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,137
Earlier on Sunday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi warned that the “highly contagious” nature of the new variant means it could “dominate and grow exponentially”.
Even if the variant was shown to cause less severe disease than previous strains such as Delta, its contagious nature meant it would potentially flood hospitals, Zahawi added. About a third of cases in London now involve Omicron, he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UKHSA, said there were growing concerns within the health community about the impact of a possible increase in infections on the NHS and warned that additional restrictions could be needed.
“Inevitably we will see a big wave of infections,” she told the BBC The Andrew Marr Show. “I think the restrictions announced by the government are reasonable. I think we may have to go beyond them, ”she said, adding that scientists need to monitor hospitalizations closely.
Recent modeling by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has shown that, without further restrictions beyond Plan B, the UK could see up to 75,000 Covid deaths associated with the Omicron variant by the end of April.
The Ministry of Health announced that they will be adults from Tuesday who are fully vaccinated and identified as a contact person who was positive for Covid-19, will have to do side flow tests for seven days instead of self-isolating. Unvaccinated people will still need to isolate themselves for 10 days, according to new guidelines.
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