LONDON (AP) \u2014 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday that the country\u2019s health system will remain under strain for weeks amid the current surge in coronavirus infections, but suggested there would be no tightening of measures soon to slow the spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highly transmissible omicron variant has sent Britain\u2019s daily new caseload soaring over Christmas and the New Year, with 137,583 infections and 73 deaths reported for England and Wales only on Sunday, with numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland to be announced after the holiday weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course the next couple of weeks, and maybe more,\u201d Johnson said during a visit to a vaccination center in Aylesbury, 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson was speaking after The Sunday Times newspaper reported that a group of hospitals in the eastern county of Lincolnshire had declared a \u201ccritical incident\u201d due to \u201cextreme and unprecedented\u201d staff shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts that run hospitals around the country, told the BBC: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing increasing staff absences, and that\u2019s coming on top of a very significant amount of wider pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson\u2019s government removed almost all coronavirus restrictions in July, but last month reversed course and triggered its \u201cPlan B\u201d for England \u2014 ordering face coverings be worn in indoor public places, requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter nightclubs and asking people to work from home if they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson on Monday urged people to adhere to those rules and get a booster vaccination shot, as the government seeks to shore up staffing shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo do all the things that I\u2019ve said, make sure we follow a Plan B, get boosted but also help the NHS with their staffing requirements, and we\u2019re looking at what we can do to move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Johnson appeared to rule out any tightening of measures in coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we\u2019re on. We\u2019ll will keep everything under review,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe mixture of things that we\u2019re doing at the moment is, I think, the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC that data from London, which has seen surging infection rates in recent weeks, appear to show a \u201cplateauing\u201d of rates, but he added, \u201cwe are seeing leakage into the over-50s in terms of infections, and it\u2019s generally the over-50s who end up with severe infection and hospitalization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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