SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingThis video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Boris Johnson says he hopes England can “ride out” the current wave of Covid-19 without further restrictions.But he acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel “temporarily overwhelmed” amid a surge of Omicron cases.The prime minister said there was a “good chance” he would not impose fresh measures and would recommend continuing the government’s “Plan B” strategy in England to ministers on Wednesday.He also announced plans for 100,000 critical workers to take daily tests. The testing regime from 10 January will be for key industries including food processing, transport and the border force, in order to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues.The PM said at a Downing Street briefing he will recommended England sticks with Plan B restrictions, when cabinet ministers meet to discuss extending them.The measures – which include working from home where possible, mask wearing in most public settings and Covid passports in some venues – are currently due to run out on 28 January.Hospital trusts declare critical incidents over staff shortagesPupils return to Covid testing and masks in classWhat are the Covid rules for the UK?As daily UK Covid case figures exceeded 200,000 for the first time with the spread of the Omicron variant, the PM said people who believed the pandemic to be over were “profoundly wrong”.The daily cases include a backlog of two days of cases from Wales and four days in Northern Ireland.He said this was a moment for caution but also that the UK’s position was different from other waves, as Omicron is milder than previous variants and booster vaccines have been rolled out.Mr Johnson said the country had a chance to “ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again”.”We can keep our schools and our businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus,” he said.Mr Johnson acknowledged the weeks ahead would be “challenging” with “some services disrupted by staff absences”. But he promised to “fortify” the NHS to withstand pressure.The assurances come as many industries are facing staffing problems over the number of workers self isolating with Covid or as contacts of cases, while many people have struggled to get tests over Christmas amid supply and demand issues. The government would continue to watch what happens in Covid data, but Mr Johnson said the Plan B restrictions in England were the correct and balanced approach. “It has to balance the effect on people’s lives and livelihoods of lockdowns, which are painful, which take away people’s life chances and which do a great deal of social damage, damage to people’s mental health as well as damage to the economy,” Mr Johnson said.He said the health service was moving on to a “war footing” with plans to set up coronavirus surge hubs at hospitals across England in preparation for a potential wave of admissions. Mr Johnson added the government was working to identify NHS trusts “most likely to need actual military support, so this can be prepared now”. Older groups start to see more infectionsIf modelling done by Warwick University for the government is anything to go by, it may be more a case of having to ride it out rather than being able to.That’s because the window to have a significant impact on the peak with extra restrictions could have already passed. Instead, what matters now is to what extent the virus spreads in older, more vulnerable groups who are most are risk of getting seriously ill.To date, most Omicron infections have been in younger age groups.But there are signs that older age groups are seeing more infections now.The hope is the boosters will do enough to limit that. It will be another week or two at least before we can be sure.Speaking alongside the PM, England’s chief medical officer Prof Sir Chris Whitty said lateral flow tests provided a “very good guide, actually, to whether someone is at that moment infectious”.Asked about the possibility of shortening the self-isolation period for Covid cases, he said the current system, where people are released if they test negative on day six and seven of their 10-day isolation, was the correct one.Prof Whitty expected the infection number would rise, but mortality rates from Omicron would be lower than other waves, while booster jabs provided “very significant protection from hospitalisation”.Pressure on intensive care units was less than in previous waves, he said, but there was a lot of pressure on A&E and other hospital services.Mr Johnson said it was “absolutely heart-breaking” that up to 90% of people in intensive care with Covid had not had a booster jab and more than 60% have not had any vaccine at all, describing many of them as “dying needlessly”.

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About the data

About the data

Ambulance queues
When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data.
A&E waits
Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted.
This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available.
Bed waits and occupancy
If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed.
In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data.
NHS trusts and boards
Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities.
When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board.
Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.

If you can’t see the lookup, click hereResponding to the prime minister’s press conference this evening, Labour’s Wes Streeting called on him to go “a lot further” to make sure tests are available for people who need them.The shadow health secretary said: “The fact we’ve got doctors, nurses, school pupils struggling to get access to tests this week is entirely down to the government being asleep at the wheel over Christmas.”The government needs to get a grip so we can avoid the need for further restrictions.”

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingThis video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.England will continue with its Plan B Covid measures amid growing pressures on the NHS, Boris Johnson has said.The prime minister said it would be “folly” to think the pandemic was over and pressure on hospitals would be “considerable” over the coming weeks.However, he added the country was in a “much better position” than this time last year thanks to vaccinations.The PM stressed Omicron looks less severe than other variants, despite it being “incredibly transmissible”.Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Aylesbury, he said the “mixture of things we’re doing at the moment” were the correct measures.He said this included continuing with Plan B, which includes mask wearing in certain indoor settings and guidance to work from home where possible, ensuring it is taken “seriously” by people.These measures are due to expire on 26 January, although they are expected to be reviewed on Wednesday. BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said to expect the status quo to rumble on until the end of the month, when the picture should be clearer as to what impact Christmas and New Year mixing had.On Monday, 157,758 new coronavirus cases were reported across England and Scotland, with data from Wales and Northern Ireland to be reported after the holiday weekend.A further 42 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in England.Classroom masks in England for no longer than necessary – Zahawi Lincolnshire hospitals declare ‘critical incident’ over staff shortagesCovid staff shortages will continue into New Year, businesses sayMr Johnson added people should be “sensible” and take a rapid test before going to see people they do not usually meet, as well as getting their first, second and booster jabs.”We’ve got to make sure we look after our NHS in any way that we can” he said, adding: “I appreciate the pressures that our hospitals are under.”‘Remain cautious’As NHS trusts warn of staffing pressures, Mr Johnson said the government was looking at what it could do to “move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected”. He said: “Looking at the pressures on the NHS in the next couple of weeks and maybe longer… looking at the numbers of people who are going to be going into hospital, it would be absolute folly to say that this thing is all over now bar the shouting.”We’ve got to remain cautious, we’ve got to stick with plan B, we’ve got to get boosted.”Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said on Twitter it was “very clear” the NHS in the rest of the country was “now coming under the significant pressure London has been encountering”.Many trusts said the biggest challenge was rising staff absence, he said, so some were declaring critical incidents to manage those.Parts of the health service are in crisis, Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation chief executive, warned.”Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services. Many more hospitals are having to ban visitors to try to reduce the spread of infection,” he said.The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own Covid restrictions.It comes as secondary school children are due to head back to school this week, with testing and mask wearing in classrooms part of their return. On a new requirement for masks, Mr Johnson agreed with Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and said the government “won’t keep them on a day more than is necessary”. Mr Johnson said he did not “like the idea of having face masks in classrooms any more than anybody else does”, but said there is an “increasing body of scientific support” for the idea that face masks contain transmission. Earlier on Monday, Mr Zahawi defended plans to require secondary pupils to wear masks during lessons until 26 January, adding ministers were determined to keep schools open after learning a “painful lesson” from earlier closures.He confirmed all secondary pupils in England would be tested before returning this week.THE GREATEST JOURNEY OF THEM ALL: Can they really make it around the world in 80 days?FILMS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY: Enjoy a cosy night in with BBC iPlayer

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, PA MediaThe UK has recorded the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 78,610 new cases on Wednesday. The previous record was 68,053 on 8 January – when the UK was in lockdown.The head of the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Jenny Harries, earlier warned the Omicron variant is “probably the most significant threat” since the pandemic began.Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to hold a press conference at 17:00 GMT.Cases have risen by nearly 20,000 in one day – on Tuesday, 59,610 confirmed cases were confirmed by the government.The jump in cases follows the introduction of new measures in recent days, with mandatory face masks in most indoor settings and Covid passes for large events in England.Health Secretary Sajid Javid refused to rule out introducing new restrictions over the coming weeks, but insisted the measures in place currently “are the right ones”.Asked if more guidance would be issued instead of legislation, he told reporters: “We keep the whole situation under review. It is fast-moving, I think people understand that.”Also on Wednesday, the UK gave out 656,711 booster or third doses of a vaccine – up by over 140,000 on the day before. There were 165 deaths of people who tested positive for Covid in the previous 28 days.Health officials have been clear we should expect cases to surge because of the Omicron variant.The first UK case was identified last month – and by last weekend it was thought to account for nearly a quarter of cases. And with Omicron infections doubling every two days it was only a matter of time before it began to drive up overall infection levels.These numbers are only going to go up from here as both Delta and Omicron circulate.What is not clear is what it means for serious illness.There are suggestions it is causing milder illness. There is logic to that – reinfections or infections post vaccination are likely to be milder.But if infections continue to rise as quickly as they are that will push up hospital admissions.Left unchecked, the peak will come quickly with modelling suggesting it could range between just over 2,000 a day to more than 6,000 in England alone.Last winter it topped out at 3,700.Concerns over the speed at which the Omicron variant is spreading in the UK have been expressed by scientists and government advisers.The chief executive of NHS England said the case numbers “should worry all of us” and emphasised they show how important the booster programme is. Amanda Pritchard told the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee: “That is a stark reminder of why the current national mission to get Covid vaccination is the right one.”