Boris Johnson hopes half-term Covid booster blitz will damp ‘Plan B’ calls

Boris Johnson is hoping that the start of England’s school half-term on Friday and a booster jab advertising blitz will damp a clamour from NHS leaders to deploy Covid-19 “Plan B”, as UK daily case numbers topped 50,000.

The UK reported 52,009 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, an increase of 15.4 per cent on the same day last week and the highest daily caseload since the surge in mid-July associated with the Euros football tournament.

There are more than 8,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital across the UK for the first time in more than a month. In the week to October 21, 912 coronavirus-related deaths were recorded, up 10.8 per cent on a week earlier.

Downing Street denied claims by the British Medical Association that Johnson was acting with “wilful negligence” by refusing to bring forward rules on mask-wearing, work from home guidance and Covid-19 passports for mass events.

The prime minister said case numbers were high but “within the parameters of what the predictions were” and urged people to come forward for booster jabs when called.

A major advertising campaign will begin on Friday to promote the booster campaign, while Johnson’s allies said the half-term break in most English schools could act as a firebreak, given high cases among children.

A record 234,241 booster appointment bookings were made in England via the national booking service on Wednesday, according to the NHS.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s spokesperson insisted that neither Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, nor Sir Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser, had formally recommended the introduction of the Plan B strategy.

The PM, at a service at Armagh cathedral to mark Northern Ireland’s centenary, wore a face mask after Sajid Javid, health secretary, said it was important for public figures to set an example.

Javid wants people to exercise personal judgment, but said people should consider wearing a mask in crowded, indoor locations where they were mingling with people outside their normal social group.

But in a sign of cabinet tensions over whether to tighten restrictions, Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, said Tory MPs did not need to wear masks because “we on this side know each other”.

The government is also under pressure to cut the interval between receiving a second jab and the booster shot, currently set at six months, to build up the country’s defences.

“Does it really matter, when it’s only nine weeks till the Christmas holidays, if someone has a booster jab after five months?” asked Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary. Downing Street said its official advisory body on vaccinations was keeping the policy under review.

Number 10 said that if Plan B, part of the winter Covid-19 plan set out last month, was implemented, employers would be given “due notice”, not least because “work from home” guidance would be reintroduced.

The fallback plan, which would involve compulsory face coverings in certain places and Covid-19 passports to enter nightclubs and mass events, would be introduced on an England-wide basis, if required.

Johnson’s spokesman denied reports that officials were studying a harsher “Plan C” — possibly including a ban on inter-household mixing — in the event that the NHS comes under increasing strain through the winter.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the British Medical Association chair, said: “It is wilfully negligent of the Westminster government not to be taking any further action to reduce the spread of infection.”

Meanwhile, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents healthcare bodies, said on Wednesday: “The message from health leaders is clear — it is better to act now rather than regret it later.”

There has also been international criticism of the UK government’s approach. Mario Draghi, Italy’s prime minister, said that Johnson’s big reopening of the UK economy on July 19 was a mistake.

“The UK, one of the countries that conducted its vaccination campaign with great speed, after abandoning all caution, today has around 50,000 daily new cases and 200 dead yesterday,” he said on Wednesday.

“The exit will need to be gradual,” Draghi, who is reopening his country’s economy in stages, told the Italian parliament.