Boris Johnson has refused to rule out the possibility of more restrictions to tackle omicron as he confirmed there had now been at least one death from the new variant.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to to a vaccination clinic in west London the prime minister said: “Throughout the pandemic I’ve been at great pains to stress to the public that we have to watch where the pandemic is going and we take whatever steps are necessary to protect public health.
“We think the steps that we are taking — so Plan B, combined with a hugely ambitious acceleration of the booster campaign, bringing it forward by a month so we offer a booster to every adult by the end of the year — we think that’s the right approach.”
The prime minister is already facing a significant backlash from Tory MPs over his Plan B measures, which include mandatory mask wearing in most indoor spaces, working from home and the use of covid passports for some events.
It has been reported that up to 60 Tory MPs could be prepared to vote against the government when the Plan B restrictions are put before parliament on Tuesday.
Scientists have, however, already warned that the rapid transmissibility of the new variant could mean that the Plan B measures will not be sufficiently effective.
Johnson confirmed that at least one patient had now died with the omicron variant prompting him to warn people against viewing it as a “milder version” of coronavirus.
He said omicron now represented about 40 per cent of coronavirus cases in London, and added: “Tomorrow it’ll be the majority of the cases.”
Last night the prime minister confirmed that the target for giving every adult in England a booster jab had been brought forward by a month over fears that a “tidal wave of omicron” could cause “very many deaths”.
In a pre-recorded address to the nation on Sunday evening, Johnson said Britain “must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection” as he set a new deadline of jabbing everyone over 18 by the new year.
He said scientists had discovered that being fully vaccinated is “simply not enough” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus mutation and that, without a lightning speed mass booster campaign, the NHS could be overwhelmed.
The mission to administer millions of jabs by December 31 will see 42 military planning teams deployed across every health region, extra vaccine sites and mobile units, extended clinic opening hours to allow people to be jabbed around the clock and at weekends, and the training of thousands more volunteer vaccinators.
The announcement comes as the UK Covid alert level was raised to Level 4, up from Level 3, following a rapid increase in the number of Omicron cases being recorded.
The recommendation was made to ministers by the country’s four chief medical officers and NHS England’s national medical director following advice from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The UK, as of Sunday, recorded a further 1,239 confirmed cases of the Omicron mutation, bringing the total number of cases to 3,137 – a 65% increase from Saturday’s total of 1,898.