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Here are the coronavirus evening headlines for Monday, December 13, after Mark Drakeford set out how all eligible adults will get an appointment for a booster vaccine before New Year’s Day.
His announcement brings Wales in line with England and Scotland who had already moved their booster targets forward from January 2022 to December 2021.
First Minister Mr Drakeford said the rollout is being accelerated after new evidence showed that two doses of the vaccine are not enough to offer protection against the new Omicron variant. Read more here.
Wales’ Health Minister Eluned Morgan has already warned tighter restrictions will be needed “in the next few weeks” to deal with the new Omicron variant. What would happen if restrictions were raised to Alert Level One.
While over the border, Boris Johnson declared an “Omicron emergency” and warned people against thinking the new variant will not make them seriously ill.
Read more:For more health-related content please go here
What Mark Drakeford had to say
Wales’ First Minister addressed the nation in a televised message where he reiterated how “we must be prepared for omicron cases to rise quickly and very steeply – just as they have in other parts of the UK”.
The number of omicron coronavirus cases in the UK increased by 65% over the weekend. There have been 13 confirmed cases in Wales, but officials have warned that Wales is one to two weeks behind Scotland and England.
Mr Drakeford said: “We are still learning about this new form of coronavirus. All the information we have tells us we are facing a very serious situation. By the end of the month, omicron will have become the dominant form of the virus in Wales, bringing a new wave of infections and illness.
“This could then translate into a large number of people needing hospital treatment just at a time when the NHS is already under significant pressure. The Welsh Government will do everything we can to protect people’s health and keep Wales safe.
“New evidence has emerged about the effectiveness of our vaccines against omicron. Two doses of the vaccine is simply not enough to give the level of protection against the infection we all need. We have already increased the speed of the roll-out of our booster programme. New clinics have been opened and operating hours extended. Urgent efforts are now underway to accelerate the programme even further so we can offer all eligible adults an appointment by the end of this year if possible.”
He added that by pulling together we could all help to keep Wales safe once more, and said: “None of us wanted to hear the news of a new omicron variant. After almost two long years of the pandemic, we had all hoped that we could put coronavirus behind us this Christmas. Unfortunately, we are once again facing a serious and worsening situation. But, we have faced challenges many times during this pandemic.”
Latest infection rate for Wales
A further eight people have died with coronavirus in Wales according to the latest figures from Public Health Wales.
New data published which covers the 48-hour period up to 9am on December 12 shows the total number of deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test in Wales now stands at 6,489.
There were also 4,543 new positive cases recorded in the latest update bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 539,435.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales, based on the cases for every 100,000 people (for the seven days up to December 8) now stands at 500.1 – a slight drop from the 501.9 reported on Sunday.
The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Anglesey with 796.7 cases per 100,000 population over seven days followed by Gwynedd with 685.6 and Wrexham with 651.7.
Omicron causing 200,000 new infections per day
The NHS will need to exceed 840,000 booster jabs per day in a bid to fight Omicron, which is causing around 200,000 new infections per day, the Health Secretary has said.
Sajid Javid also told MPs that there are now 4,713 confirmed cases of Omicron in the UK, adding that the UK Health Security Agency estimates that the current number of “daily infections are around 200,000”.
A health source later clarified what Mr Javid meant by his implications that Omicron infections were running at 200,000 per day: he was referring to Omicron infections, not Covid infections. He was quoting from a UK Health Security Agency estimate for the number of people who currently are infected with Omicron, not to the number who are catching the infection for the first time every day.
Mr Javid added: “While Omicron represents over 20% of cases in England, we’ve already seen it rise to over 44% in London and we expect it to become the dominant Covid 19 variant in the capital in the next 48 hours.”
Every adult across England will be offered a “chance to get boosted by the end of this month” though Mr Javid suggested not everyone would get a dose in December. He said: “It is asking a huge amount of our colleagues in the NHS. And it’s our joint view that we can try to offer adults a chance to get boosted by the end of this month.
“And that does not mean every single person necessarily can get that booster, it requires them to come forward and to take up this offer as well, as well as everything going right in this huge expansion plan.”
It follows confusion over whether the Government has promised that people can all have a jab in their arm by the December 31 deadline, or whether they will just have an offer of a future vaccine.
He was speaking on the day the UK recorded its first death involving Omicron, and 10 people were reported being in hospital with the variant. Most of these 10 have received two vaccines and range in age from 18 to 85, though there are no details on whether they have underlying conditions.
Mr Javid told the Commons: “Until now the highest number of jabs that we’ve delivered in a single day in the UK was over 840,000. We’ll not only need to match that but we will need to beat that every day. But we can and we’ve got a plan to try and do it.
“We’re opening more vaccination sites including pop-up and mobile sites that’ll be working seven days a week. We are training thousands more volunteer vaccinators, we’re asking GPs and pharmacies to do more and we’re drafting in 42 military planning teams across every region of our country.”
NHS told to prepare for “new and significant threat” of Omicron
The NHS can run 24/7 vaccine clinics and discharge some patients to hotels under plans set out by health leaders in England.
The health service has been put on its highest level of emergency preparedness as it sets itself to tackle the “new and significant” threat posed by the Omicron variant.
The health service in England declared a “Level 4 National Incident”, which means that trusts will not have autonomy to guide the response in their local areas and central NHS will lead the charge. Health leaders said that the emergence of the variant requires an “extraordinary response” from the NHS.
A new letter from health bosses states that the NHS will deliver “more vaccines over the coming weeks than ever before” which might include 24/7 vaccine clinics “where relevant for the local community”.
Vaccine sites should operate 12 hours a day “as standard” seven days a week, while some GP appointments will need to be postponed as the NHS prioritises the vaccination programme.
But the letter warns: “Even with the additional protection that vaccine boosters will give, the threat from Omicron remains serious.” It adds that the number of people requiring care could be “significant over the coming period” as it set out steps for the NHS to prepare for a fresh wave of cases. This includes discharging medically fit patients to hotels and ramping up the use of private hospitals.
Pressures in the social care system mean that many patients can usually be left in hospital while social care packages are arranged. But the NHS has ordered hospitals to free up as many beds as possible, which could include discharging fit patients to hotels to wait for social care support to be put in place.
Health leaders have also been ordered to make “full use of non-acute beds in the local health and care system” including the use of beds in hospices and private hospitals. They have also been told to expand the use of “virtual wards”.
Hospital bosses have been asked to “surge test”, including testing oxygen supplies, and “learn the lessons from previous waves of Covid-19, and making preparations to have the capacity in place to meet a potentially similar challenge this winter”.
Trusts have been ordered to maintain mental health, learning disability and autism services.
Meanwhile, they have been told to prioritise pre-planned care for “highest clinical priority patients” – which includes those with cancer and those who have been waiting the longest.
The letter says that services should be maintained “as much as possible”, but recognises that some staff may need to be redeployed to support vaccination efforts.
And plans to employ more staff should be accelerated – including asking international nurses to come to work in the UK sooner where possible.
The letter, penned by NHS England’s chief executive Amanda Pritchard and national medical director Professor Stephen Powis, concludes: “The past two years have arguably been the most challenging in the history of the NHS, but staff across the NHS have stepped up time and time again to do the very best for the nation – expanding and flexing services to meet the changing demands of the pandemic; introducing new treatments, new services and new pathways to respond to the needs of patients with Covid-19 and those without; pulling out all the stops to recover services that have been disrupted, whilst rolling out the largest and fastest vaccination programme in our history.
“The Omicron variant presents a new and significant threat, and the NHS must once again rise to the national mission to protect as many people as possible through the vaccination programme whilst also now taking steps to prepare for and respond to this threat.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons on Monday afternoon: “NHS England has just announced it will return to its highest level of emergency preparedness: Level 4 National Incident. This means the NHS response to Omicron will be a coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts.”
It comes after England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the NHS is “once again facing a rising challenge” and thanked health staff for their efforts.
He tweeted: “NHS staff have worked with skill, integrity and determination through very difficult circumstances for a long time. As millions come for boosters and pressures increase on the NHS we are once again facing a rising challenge. A profound thank you for all you are doing.”
Second Welsh council announces plans to close schools early
A second Welsh council announced on Monday that schools will close early for Christmas and pupils will return to remote learning in the face of rising Covid cases.
Pupils in Denbighshire will end face-to-face lessons on Friday, December 17 and learn from home until term ends officially on December 21. Denbighshire Council said the decision was made today after discussions with headteachers.
Anglesey Council announced earlier on Monday that its schools will also shut on Friday and the last three days of term between December 20 and 22 will be online.
Denbighshire council said in a statement: “The decision has been made today to give parents as much notice as possible. Remote learning will continue at schools until the end of the day on Tuesday, December 21, which is the last day of term.
“The decision has been taken to protect pupils and staff after the UK Government’s move to Alert Level 4, which states transmission is high and direct Covid-19 pressure on healthcare services is widespread.”
The Welsh Government has said no all-Wales decision to shut schools early has been made and decisions rest with individual councils and schools.
Schools should not shut early for Christmas unless told it’s necessary says Number 10
Schools should not be closing early for Christmas unless they have been told it is “necessary” on public health grounds, Downing Street has said.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman indicated that schools would be kept open unless there is an “absolute public health emergency”.
Local authorities have been warned against shutting schools early for the festive break simply as a precautionary measure.
Asked whether schools might close early for Christmas, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Certainly we do not think anyone should be closing schools early unless they have received advice from the local director of public health that it’s necessary on public health grounds.
“We wouldn’t want to see that happening routinely, just as a precaution, because as I’ve said, education is vital. And we’ve seen, sadly, because of the public health crisis, children have to miss face-to-face education. And so it’s very important that we maintain schooling as much as possible.”
It comes after a teaching union urged the Government to stagger the return of pupils to schools in January amid concerns about the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, a heads’ union has warned that delaying action until vaccination can take hold could keep children away from class “longer” in the long term.
The NASUWT teaching union is calling on Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to urgently announce additional measures for schools and colleges before the Christmas break to avoid a repeat of the “chaos” last year.
The Government should publish guidance advising schools to cancel or postpone non-essential activities and events immediately, as well as move to online staff and parental meetings, the union says.
It adds that a staggered return of pupils in January should be considered and extra on-site testing facilities should be provided until the February half-term.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he could not guarantee schools would not close again due to the pandemic.
Strict travel rules for arrivals could be eased
Red list rules could be eased later this week after reports that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has convinced colleagues to ease restrictions on travellers. A plan is expected to be approved in the coming days and hotel quarantine could be replaced with testing for fully vaccinated travellers, according to the Mail on Sunday.
“There will be changes to the red list and hotel quarantine system later this week, changes which enable the Government to look friendlier towards travel just one week before Christmas,” Paul Charles, chief of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told Telegraph Travel.
He added: “The red list will stay in some form, as the Government relies on it as a safety net to expand at the right moment, but I’m expecting hotel quarantine to be relaxed for UK citizens entering England and possibly all the devolved nations. It will be replaced instead by self-isolation at home which is something that should have been introduced from the beginning.”
Health Secretary Sajid Javid hinted this morning that changes to travel restrictions could be imminent, telling Sky News: “We will keep that under review. As it spreads around the country, there is less reason to have any country on the red list.”
During his statement in the Commons on Monday afternoon, Mr Javid said he wanted strict travel rules for people arriving in the UK eased given the spread of Omicron already in this country.
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw called for the “very draconian, costly and complex” travel rules introduced only recently to try and stop Omicron arriving in the UK to be dropped. To which Mr Javid replied: “I think [Bradshaw] makes a very good point, given that we already know that the Omicron variant is fast becoming the dominant variant in our capital city, spreading rapidly throughout the country, the justification for having those rules is minimised.
“It’s something that I’ve already raised with my colleagues in the Department for Transport and I do hope that we can act quickly.”
Eleven countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Namibia have been added to the previously empty hotel quarantine list, with stays costing £2,285 per person.
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