By Hamed Chapman
London, (The Muslim News): Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has once again declined to act upon warnings by medics for people not to mix over the Christmas break if they don’t have to due to the soaring numbers of Covid-19 cases due to the new variant, Omicron.
Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, issued a clear message for the public to cut back on socialising in the run-up to Christmas Day, warning that the country was facing “two epidemics on top of each other” with the highest number of daily Covid cases being recorded so far.
“We have to be realistic that records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks” and a rise in Covid hospitalisations is “nailed on,” Whitty said while standing alongside the Prime Minister at a Downing Street briefing on Wednesday evening,
His cautious message was echoed by Nikki Kanani, Medical Director of Primary Care for NHS England, at the press conference, who said she would be scaling back her own Christmas plans “so I can get those special moments with my family”, adding that she knew “that’s what everyone will choose to do if they can.”
In contrast Johnson continued to bang on in his cavalier style, insisting “we’re not closing hospitality…we’re not cancelling parties” and telling the public “we’re in a different environment thanks to last year”.
His main focus as ever was on the vaccine rollout and booster programme, suggesting it was the reason why his Government don’t have to go further and emulate Ireland, France and Germany and begin to shut down parts of the economy.
It is also in contrast to the route of Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who asked Scots to limit socialising to three households in the run-up to and aftermath of Christmas.
The Prime Minister’s refusal to implement further restrictions comes after his Government suffered its biggest revolt so far by Tory MPs with as many as 98 rebels voting against his earlier milder measures including the mandatory use of Covid passes for the largest venues. The Government only won with the support of Labour MPs.
[Photo: Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, at the Covid-19 press conference with Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer in the Downing Street media briefing room on 15 December, 2019. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street]
