Daily Covid infections are up 3.6% on last week after seven days of double digit growth
Britain’s Covid growth SLOWS: Daily infections are up 3.6% on last week after seven days of double digit growth – as expert predicts UK will be ‘locked down for Christmas’ despite SAGE models that show NHS should cope
Department of Health bosses posted 44,985 new infections today, up 3.6 per cent on last Saturday’s 43,423The single figure increase comes after seven days of infections increasing by at least 10 per cent Number of people dying with the virus fell 8.8 per cent to 135 today, down from the 148 recorded last week
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Britain’s Covid case crisis appears to be slowing, official data today showed as fears grow around the impending winter wave.
Department of Health bosses posted 44,985 new coronavirus infections, up 3.6 per cent on last week’s total of 43,423.
The single figure increase comes after seven days of infections spiking by at least 10 per cent, suggesting the recent uptick in cases may be beginning to slow.
And the number of people dying with the virus fell to 135 today. It was down 8.8 per cent on last Saturday’s toll of 148.
The figures come after a Government scientific adviser said he is ‘very fearful’ there will be another ‘lockdown Christmas’.
Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) and SAGE subgroup CO-CIN, said case numbers and death rates are currently ‘unacceptable’.
But SAGE scientists insisted it was ‘highly unlikely’ that the NHS would be overwhelmed by the virus this winter even without restrictions.
Modelling by the group for England predicted that the combination of vaccine-acquired immunity and natural protection would be enough to keep hospital rates below levels seen during the second wave.
Boris Johnson yesterday resisted calls from health leaders for tighter restrictions despite the rising levels of infections.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said new cases could reach 100,000 a day but Downing Street insisted there was still spare capacity in the NHS and that Plan B would only be activated if it came under ‘significant pressure’.
Meanwhile, it was revealed Brits may need three Covid vaccinations to go on holiday next summer but under-50s are unlikely to receive a booster until ‘well after Christmas’.
Modelling by SAGE predicted that the combination of vaccine-acquired immunity and natural protection would be enough to keep hospital rates below levels seen in the second wave. Even in the most pessimistic scenarios, the group estimated that daily Covid hospital admissions would not rise above 1,500. More optimistic models had them peaking at below 1,000 in winter. The above charts are based on modelling by Warwick University and look at how quickly people go back to pre-pandemic social contacts. It was based on the booster doses given ‘sustained’ immunity
Other SAGE modelling took into account ‘repeated’ waning from booster doses, and projected that hospital admissions could breach levels seen during the second wave in January under the worst-case projections
It comes as:
Rishi Sunak said booster Covid vaccines will prevent another lockdown as he defied health experts who warned the NHS could be overwhelmed this winter;Top scientists urged the Government to rollout Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine as soon as possible because it may prove a game-changer in No10’s efforts to persuade hesitant adults to get jabbed; Investigations showed one of Britain’s richest men claimed up to £6million in furlough money despite saying he had ‘borrowed nothing from the Government during Covid pandemic’.
The Government said a further 135 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of today, bringing the UK total to 139,361.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 164,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.
It comes as it was revealed Britons may need three Covid vaccinations to go on holiday next summer.
Care minister Gillian Keegan, 53, said the current vaccine passport system will have to evolve, which could mean having three jabs to be able to jet off.
But an anonymous source on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said boosters for people under the age of 50 would most probably be given ‘well after Christmas’.
The JCVI member said the committee would probably not extend the booster roll-out to other groups of people until more tangible progress was made with people eligible for the third vaccine at the moment.
Professor Openshaw, of Imperial College London, told BBC Breakfast: ‘I’m very fearful that we’re going to have another lockdown Christmas if we don’t act soon.
‘We know that with public health measures the time to act is immediately. There’s no point in delaying.
‘If you do delay then you need to take even more stringent actions later. The immediacy of response is absolutely vital if you’re going to get things under control.
‘We all really, really want a wonderful family Christmas where we can all get back together.
‘If that’s what we want, we need to get these measures in place now in order to get transmission rates right down so that we can actually get together and see one another over Christmas.’
Professor Openshaw said it is ‘unacceptable to be letting this run at the moment’, adding: ‘I think the hospitals in many parts of the country are barely coping actually.
‘Talking to people on the front line, I think it’s just not sustainable to keep going at this rate.
‘I think it’s just unacceptable to see the number of deaths that we’ve got at the moment.
‘At one stage last week there were 180 deaths in a single day. That is just too many deaths. We seem to have got used to the idea that we’re going to have many, many people dying of Covid and that I think is just not the case.
‘We need to slow down transmission and really redouble efforts to get everyone vaccinated and all the boosters out, and then we can open up again.’
Professor Openshaw was asked what he would say to people who have concerns about what they can do to stop the spread of the virus in the event of the Government not reintroducing measures.
He told the programme: ‘I think take matters into your own hands. Don’t wait necessarily for Government policy.
Only around 4.5million (green line) out of the 9.3million eligible people (blue line) in England have received the crucial third dose, prompting ministers to urge people to come forward for their inoculations
‘I’m very, very reluctant now to go into crowded spaces because I know that roughly one in 60 people in a crowded space are going to have the virus. If you can, cycle to work, don’t go on public transport.
‘I think do everything possible in your control to try to reduce transmission. Don’t wait for the Government to change policy.
‘The sooner we all act, the sooner we can get this transmission rate down, and the greater the prospect of having a Christmas with our families.’
Elsewhere, the World Health Organisation warned the vaccine alone will not be able to lift the world out of the pandemic.
Spokesperson Margaret Harris told Times Radio: ‘The problem is focusing on one thing, the vaccine isn’t going to get us out of this.
‘We really have to do other measures.
‘We have got to be serious about not crowding. We have still got to be looking at wearing the masks, when you’re indoors particularly.’
Scientific advisers have told the Government it must ensure Plan B restrictions to tackle coronavirus can be ‘rapidly’ deployed if needed.
Experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said, in minutes of a meeting published on Friday, that a further huge spike in infections as seen in January was ‘increasingly unlikely’, as experts predicted a series of broader, flatter peaks as the virus continues to spread.
However, in its meeting dated October 14, Sage warned measures from the Government’s Plan B would have greatest effect if brought in in unison and earlier on rather than later.
Scientists are in favour of a relatively light-touch approach, implemented earlier to make a difference, with Sage saying the ‘reintroduction of working-from-home guidance is likely to have the greatest individual impact on transmission out of the proposed measures’ in Plan B.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told The Times the country could not return to ‘significant economic restrictions’ and that the vaccine rollout meant this was not necessary, while Boris Johnson also said on Friday that another lockdown was not planned.
UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls warned that businesses will not survive another winter of lockdown restrictions.
Asked on Times Radio if she thought businesses would survive if the Government goes ahead with Plan B, she said: ‘No I don’t, bluntly. We have already lost 12,000 businesses.’
She said that when restrictions are in place ‘consumers do stay at home, they don’t go out and socialise’.
