We are working hard with the NHS to tackle the pressures faced this winter.” What is the current advice on face masks? “It would also make perfect sense to ask people who can work from home to do so if the NHS need us all to support them through this busy period of the year.”Ī spokeswoman for the UKHSA said that the introduction of any further measures “would sit with DHSC (Department for Health and Social Care)”.Ī DHSC spokesman told i: “It is inaccurate to say we are considering implementing any such measures. Ministers have ruled out any national lockdowns or school closures during the winter admissions crisis. I can’t imagine we’d be as lucky as that ever again.”īut if cases do rise, there is no indication that the UK will return to the mandatory lockdown restrictions in place for much of the Covid pandemic – here’s everything you need to know. He added: “We were incredibly well prepared in that sense. Professor John Edmunds, an infectious diseases expert at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “We were actually very lucky with Omicron because we had just started boosting the elderly and vulnerable.” Guidance for adults who feel ill to wear face masks in public is not mandatory (Photo: PA)Įarly research suggests it is both more infectious than the current dominant variant – Omicron BA.5 and its sublineages such as BQ.1 as well as being better at evading immunity.īut there is no evidence that XBB.1.5 is more severe than the BA.5 strain, so it should not lead to a higher proportion of infections turning serious.Ī leading health expert told i that the arrival of a variant of concern similar to the Omicron strain which arrived last winter would put the UK under “enormous pressure”.
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