UK Covid live: Johnson says he must ‘reserve possibility of taking further action’ after 91,743 new cases

Esther McVey, the Tory former cabinet minister, thinks Boris Johnson’s statement tonight (see 5.50pm) shows he is responding to Conservative backbench opinion. She was one of the Tories who voted against the government in all three Covid votes last week – on face coverings, Covid passes and mandatory vaccination for NHS workers.

Here is the opening statement that Boris Johnson delivered at the start of his pooled TV interview after cabinet. It sums up his position, which is that he is not announcing further Covid restrictions now, but clearly warning that such measures may be coming shortly. He said:

We’ve had a long discussion in cabinet for a couple of hours now, a very good discussion, at which we agreed that the situation is extremely difficult and the arguments either way are very, very finely balanced.

Because we’ve got cases of Omicron surging across the country now, we’ve got hospitalisations, rising quite steeply in London, and the obvious conclusion is that of course it was right to go fast for plan B in the way that we did, and also right to double the speed of the booster rollout …

And in view of the balance of risks and uncertainties, particularly around the infection hospitalisation rate of Omicron – how many people does Omicron put into hospital of the infected – and some other uncertainties to do with severity and booster effectiveness and so on, we agreed that we should keep the data from now on under constant review, keep following it hour by hour.

And unfortunately I must say to people we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public … and we won’t hesitate to take that action.

But in the meantime, what I would say to everybody is please exercise caution as you go about your lives, please think of the guidance and think protecting yourself and your loved ones. And please get a booster, please get a vaccination.

Given that some government sources are hinting that further restrictions are likely after Christmas, possibly starting a week tomorrow (see 2.49am), Johnson’s claim that making an announcement now about new measures would be premature may seem disingenous. His caution is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that some Tory MPs are vehemently opposed to further regulations.

But even Labour, which has been demanding more clarity now, has indicated that it is not in favour of new restrictions on social mixing coming into force before Christmas (see 10.57am), and so Johnson, like the opposition, may in part be also just making a judgment about what is acceptable to the public.

These are from ITV’s Anushka Asthana, who conducted the pooled interview with Boris Johnson after the cabinet meeting.

Boris Johnson also said the government reserved the “possibility of taking further action” to protect public health because of the spread of the Omicron variant, PA Media reports:

Following a meeting of the cabinet, the prime minister said they were monitoring the situation “hour by hour”.

“Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS,” he said.

“We won’t hesitate to take action.”

Johnson also said nothing was ruled out for the future.

Boris Johnson has said the decisions for and against further restrictions are “finely balanced”, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports.

According to Sage, the argument for further restrictions are not at all finely balanced, but compelling. See 10.33am.

The quote is from a pooled TV interview that Boris Johnson has recorded. I will post more from it shortly.

Some of the data being studied most closely by scientists and ministers as they consider what to do about Omicron will be the hospital admissions data. Omicron took off in London before anywhere else in the UK, and here are the hospital admission figures for London from the government’s Covid dashboard today. Admissions are still only a quarter of what they were at the peak in January, but the seven-day rolling average has gone from about 90 at the start of November to more than double that in the middle of last week. The actual figure now is likely to be even higher.

The UK Health Security Agency has announced that there have been another 8,044 Omicron cases confirmed since yesterday, taking the total to 45,145. That’s a 22% increase.

Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall has a useful Twitter thread about some of the theatres and museums that are now closing because of Covid. It starts here.

The UK has recorded 91,743 new coronavirus cases, the government’s Covid dashboard says. That is the second highest recorded total ever, beaten only by the figure for Friday last week, when 93,045 cases were recorded.

(Comparisons are only appropriate with the second and third waves, because there was very little testing during the first wave, which kept recorded cases very low.)

And the total number of new cases over the past week is now up 60.8% on the total for the previous week. Yesterday the week on week total was up 51.9%.

There have been 44 further deaths, and week-on-week deaths are still going down, by 5.4% on today’s figure.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is also accusing Boris Johnson of dithering over the announcement of new Covid measures.

Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group, which represents lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, has urged the government to be more open about the measures it is planning, and the data behind it.

Harper’s tweet implies that ministers have already decided what they will do, but have just not got round to telling anyone. That may not be the case; throughout this process decisions have been made at the last minute, after much dither. And although governments routinely keep advice from officials confidential, with Covid there is more transparency than in most other areas of policymaking. The main advice is coming from Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, and a raft of papers considered at its last meeting, on Thursday last week, is now on its website, as well as the minutes (pdf).

The Department for Education is urging former teachers in England who have time available to return to the classroom next term to help cover for absent staff. As it explains in its news release, “the Omicron variant is expected to continue to cause increased staff absence levels in the spring term, and some local areas may struggle to find sufficient numbers of supply teachers available unless former staff come forward.”

The Disability Charities Consortium, which represents major disability charities, has written an open letter to Boris Johnson saying it has “grave concerns” that governmment measures announced to deal with Omicron do not pay enough concerns to the needs of disabled people.

It is particularly critical of the lack of fresh guidance for the clinically extremely vulnerable, and it says disabled people are having problems getting booster jabs. On this point it says:

We have had sight of a letter from the DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] dated 17th December that encourages priority access for the clinically vulnerable including disabled people. We know that disabled people do not have the same flexibility for attending appointments as others, especially if relying on support from carers or personal assistants. Those who require facilities such as accessible parking and toilets face less choice in where they can get a booster. For many, walk-in centres are not an option due to long queues. Whilst the latest letter is positive about queue management, we urge the government to monitor the take up of the booster amongst disabled people and ensure all venues and information are accessible for disabled people across the country, and to give priority access to disabled people.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that it is providing £28m to councils in England to help them get rough sleepers vaccinated.

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and deputy first minister, has described today’s court ruling on the DUP’s boycott of ministerial meetings with the Irish government (see 2.17pm) as an “embarrassing indictment” of the party. She said:

The DUP declared publicly that they are engaged in a political boycott of North-South Ministerial Council meetings in protest at the Brexit protocol.

Today the high court stated that they cannot force DUP ministers to act in good faith who are wilfully disregarding the rule of law and in breach of the ministerial code of conduct through their boycott of the North-South Ministerial Council. The court acknowledges that the DUP is in plain breach of their obligations.

This is an embarrassing indictment of the DUP and their continued juvenile antics in the executive.

According to ITV’s Anushka Asthana, a Zoom briefing about Covid that Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, was due to hold with MPs this afternoon has been postponed.