In the UK, Health Minister Sajid Javid announced that new Covid-19 restrictions will not be introduced before the New Year.
Minister Javid nevertheless urged the public to be careful and to celebrate New Year’s Eve outdoors if possible.
Stating that 90 percent of the cases in the country are Omicron variants, Javid said that they will reevaluate the situation in the new year and if necessary, they will announce new measures in 2022.
According to the latest data in England, 8 thousand 474 people are being treated for Covid-19 in the hospital.
Although this number is the highest since March, it is far from the peak that exceeded 34 thousand last winter.
The latest coronavirus data in the UK shows that the National Health System will be very difficult next month, but will not be blocked.
It was revealed last week that Omicron causes milder disease compared to other variants.
But it’s not clear how this will affect the real world. If cases increase fast enough, it is theoretically possible to clog the healthcare system.
Our observations in London, the first place to experience the Omicron wave, can give an idea of what may be going on in the rest of the country.
In London, the number of cases doubled every week in the first half of December. But the number of hospitalizations increased much more slowly, by two-thirds.
Moreover, the increase in the number of cases seems to have slowed towards the end of last week.
If these observations are correct and the rest of the country experiences similarly, the number of people hospitalized could be halfway through last year’s peak.
This is very close to the so-called “best-case scenario”.
There are still many unknowns out there. But what is known seems to have convinced the ministers.