A senior scientific adviser warned that the Omicron variant was a very severe blow to hopes of bringing the Pandemic under control.
Even if Omicron turned out to be milder, plan B measures announced by the prime minister were not an overreaction, according to Prof John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Royal Society of Medicine was told on Thursday that it was likely that there were many more cases of Omicron in the community than were confirmed by testing.
The UK Health Security Agency identified a further 249 Omicron cases on Thursday, almost twice the number announced the day before. If the UK had 1,000 cases today, then doubling the time from two to three days would drive the number up to 8,000 in a week and 64,000 in two weeks. The wave of Delta infections would come on top of those.
Nobody wants to have to do it again. It is very damaging for parts of the economy and we have to do it.
He said that the number of cases could be significant by Christmas. I think we are unlikely to overreact. He said that travel restrictions were not going to do much now that community transmission is so high.
