The health secretary, Sajid Javid, has made clear that tougher Covid restrictions could be imposed in England before Christmas, after the government’s Sage committee warned that hospitalisations could peak at between 3,000 and 10,000 a day unless action is taken. Javid acknowledged that data about the Omicron variant remained incomplete – but suggested it might be necessary to make decisions before a full picture is available. Asked to rule out new measures pre-Christmas, he said: “We are assessing the situation; it’s very fast-moving,” adding, “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.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Javid stressed that it was already clear that Omicron spread very quickly, adding that there were likely to be many more cases than official data is showing. In minutes published this weekend, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) urged the government to reintroduce “more stringent measures … very soon”, warning that cases were set to reach between 600,000 and 2m a day by the end of the month if action was not taken immediately. 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, alongside the wider effect of potential measures, including their economic effects. Echoing the message of England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, earlier this week, Javid 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. Javid said he would be taking a lateral flow test before seeing his elderly mother, and would hug her less than usual. Cabinet ministers are understood to have discussed the possibility of fresh restrictions in a call on Saturday, with the prime minister keen to hold out until after 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. The changes, which included widening mandatory mask-wearing and requiring Covid passes at large venues, were passed only with Labour support, with 100 Conservative backbenchers rebelling against the changes. Boris Johnson has promised to recall parliament if he judges that tougher regulations are needed over Christmas – though he could issue non-binding guidance to the public without doing so. The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, told Trevor Phillips on Sunday on Sky News that Javid was “a hostage to his own party” on Covid. “The prime minister has a big problem when it comes to the crisis of confidence in his leadership in his own ranks, and crucially that is impacting on the government’s public health response,” he said. Streeting said that if parliament was recalled in the coming days, Labour was ready to support more restrictions if these were recommended by scientists. “He doesn’t have to negotiate with the people holding him to ransom on his own backbenches, because we will act in the public interest, we will put public health before party politics,” he said. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who declared Omicron a “major incident” in the capital on Saturday, argued that further controls on mixing should be introduced. “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 suggested the right moment to move might be after Christmas, given the importance for people’s mental health of meeting up with their families.