Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Jul 05, 2025

Christmas curbs could be brought in within days, says Sajid Javid

Christmas curbs could be brought in within days, says Sajid Javid

Health secretary expected to announce whether social mixing will be curtailed over festive period

Sajid Javid has made clear that fresh Covid restrictions could be imposed before Christmas to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, with ministers set to make a decision in days.

Government insiders expect an announcement to be made early next week about whether social mixing will be curtailed before the festive period – potentially including a cap on the number of families that can meet, or even hospitality closures.

“We are assessing the situation; it’s very fast-moving,” the health secretary said on Sunday, when asked about whether new curbs could be implemented before Christmas.

Pressure on the government over Covid curbs has been intensified by the shock resignation on Saturday night of the Brexit minister, David Frost, who made clear that his objection to the plan B measures put in place last week was one of the reasons for his departure.

Any additional restrictions would be likely to spark a furious backlash from Tory MPs, with sceptics adamant there is not enough information yet to make a decision.

But Javid took that argument head on, suggesting ministers may have to act before they have the full picture, given the time lag between infection and hospitalisation.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, there are gaps in the data, but we must work with the data we’ve got, we mustn’t let perfection be the enemy of the good,” he said.

One cabinet minister suggested Javid and the government’s scientific advisers appeared to be preparing the ground for an announcement in the coming days, saying, “I think we are all being warmed up for it”.

The health secretary’s blunt intervention came after government advisers warned that without tougher measures, hospitalisations across England could be set to peak at between 3,000 and 10,000 a day, and deaths at between 600 and 6,000 a day.

Minutes from a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Emergencies (Sage), held last Thursday, showed the experts urging the government to implement “more stringent measures … very soon”.

They suggested a return to step one or two of the roadmap out of lockdown earlier this year. Even at step two, household mixing was only allowed outdoors, with a maximum of six people or two households. Pubs were only allowed to serve customers outside.
Advertisement

“The timing of such measures is crucial. Delaying until 2022 would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings,” the scientists warned.

Pressed about Sage’s advice, Javid said: “It’s a very sobering analysis, we take it very seriously.” He said he and his colleagues would be assessing the advice, but also had to take into account the wider effect of potential measures, including their economic effects.

Scientific advisers see doing nothing as a major gamble: a lot would have to go right for the NHS to weather the storm, such as the disease being milder, and boosters holding up well.

In nearly all of the modelling considered by Sage on 8 December, it will take an intervention as effective as January’s lockdown to keep hospitalisations below previous peaks.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Mark Woolhouse, a member of the Sage modelling subgroup and professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said the government had to juggle protecting the NHS, saving Christmas and avoiding a lockdown, while heading off such a huge absentee rate due to illness and self-isolation that it disrupted essential services.

“The critical point is that decisions need to be made very urgently indeed – that is the implication of two-day doubling time – without having perfect information, most importantly on the severity of Omicron and the effectiveness of boosters against it,” he said.

“My view is that the maxim ‘early intervention can be less drastic intervention’ still holds, but the door is closing very fast. We don’t want to reach the point where whatever we do is damage limitation.”

A No 10 source played down the chances of an imminent announcement, saying: “You never can rule anything out, but plan B was only implemented a week ago, and we’re getting huge numbers coming forward for their boosters.”

Javid hailed the fact that a record 906,656 booster jabs were delivered in England alone on Saturday.

In an indication of the response any new measures would be likely to meet with from MPs, the chair of the backbench Covid recovery group, Mark Harper, said “lockdowns, of any kind, should not become the default policy choice”, adding that “holding out is often the right decision and often the hardest”.

Echoing the message of England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, earlier this week, the health secretary also called on the public to be careful about socialising in the run-up to Christmas. “It’s time to be more cautious. We know this thing is spreading rapidly,” he said.

It is understood ministers are monitoring hospitalisations in London particularly closely. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, declared a major incident in the capital on Saturday amid concerns about mass absences in the NHS and other public services, and rocketing cases.

Khan said more curbs were inevitable. “If we don’t bring in new restrictions sooner rather than later, you’re going to see even more positive cases, and potentially public services like the NHS on the verge of collapse, if not collapsing,” he told the BBC.

But he suggested the right moment to move might be after Christmas, given the importance for people’s mental health of meeting up with their families.

Some cabinet ministers are known to be very wary of more restrictions, with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak among those counselling caution. An ally of Sunak said he was “working through the data” before making a final decision.

On Sunday, the UK government announced it was doubling the amount of additional funding available for the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to tackle Covid from £430m to £860m. Sunak confirmed the increased funding after discussions with the devolved administrations.

A spokesperson for Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she was seeking urgent clarity as it appeared the money was not additional funding, but “simply a form of ‘advance’ on funding that would have come to Scotland anyway”.

Sunak is understood to be awaiting a final decision on what curbs will be imposed, before announcing any financial support package for industries already hit by mass cancellations.

The chancellor flew back early from a work trip to California last Friday amid intense pressure from businesses in the hospitality and culture sectors.

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said the public needed to hear “practical steps” from the government, claiming Boris Johnson had been “asleep at the wheel”.

“The public want to know the government has got a grip but, tragically, Boris Johnson is so distracted by his own internal party pressures that he’s unable to provide the leadership this country needs,” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Political Dispute Escalates Between Trump and Musk
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
US Senate Votes to Remove AI Regulation Moratorium from Domestic Policy Bill
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
Jury Deliberations in Diddy Trial Yield Partial Verdict in Serious Criminal Charges
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
King Charles Plans Significant Role for Prince Harry in Coronation
Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Espionage Activities Against U.S. Navy
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
Trump Administration Considers Withdrawal of Funding for Hospitals Providing Gender Treatment to Minors
Texas Enacts Law Allowing Gold and Silver Transactions
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
OpenAI Secures Multimillion-Dollar AI Contracts with Pentagon, India, and Grab
×