Some Covid restrictions must immediately be reintroduced if England is to avoid “stumbling into a winter crisis”, health leaders have warned.
The NHS Confederation said a back-up strategy, or Plan B, which includes mandatory face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces, should be implemented.
UK cases have been rising sharply but deaths are well below the winter peak.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it was not time for Plan B yet and urged greater uptake of booster jabs.
He said he did not want further lockdowns or to jeopardise the “hard-won gains” of reopening the economy.
“I don’t want to inject any hint of complacency but I think so far our approach is working” he said, pointing to lower rates of hospital admissions and deaths than in earlier waves of infection.
Daily Covid cases have been above 40,000 for seven days in a row, with 43,738 new infections reported on Tuesday, and the number of patients in hospital rose by 10% in a week to 7,749 on Monday.
Another 223 deaths were recorded, the largest number since March, although daily figures are often higher on Tuesdays.
The government’s Plan A for dealing with Covid in England this winter is currently in place – with booster jabs offered to about 30 million people, a single dose of a vaccine available for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds and people advised to wear face coverings in crowded places.
If these measures are not enough to prevent “unsustainable pressure” on the NHS, then steps like making face coverings mandatory in some settings, asking people to work from home and introducing vaccine passports could be considered as part of Plan B.
Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service organisations, urged the government to roll out Plan B to avoid hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
“The health service is right at the edge,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The pressures would only grow worse and the nation had to make a decision to take pre-emptive action, he said, adding: “Or do we stumble into a crisis once again, despite the evidence?”
Source: BBC
