omicron

England is experiencing the new wave generated by the Omicron variant. Between December 14 and 29, just over 1.7 million English people tested positive for Covid out of around 56 million inhabitants. The health strategy differs in the rest of the UK, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

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In England, a new record was recorded on December 29 with 164,736 new cases, according to figures released on Saturday by the British Department of Health. Since September, England has so far seen the appearance of between 20,000 and 40,000 new cases every day.

4,000 emergency beds created in hospital car parks

These new data have prompted the government to act. Not by tightening restrictions on the population, towards which the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is very circumspect, but by creating 4,000 emergency beds in the car parks of eight hospitals in the country. “We hope that these reception centers will not be used, but it is normal to prepare for all scenarios and increase our capacity”, The Minister of Health, Sajid Javid, justified himself last week.

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These measures have been criticized by Labor Party Vice President Angela Rayner. According to her, “The government hesitated and delayed, leaving contingency planning at the very last moment”. Several doctors have also complained, on the social network Twitter, of the government’s lack of action.

The number of deaths remains stable

However, the English health system is resisting this new wave for the moment, and January 2021 does not look like January 2020. Admittedly, 2,370 patients with Covid were admitted to hospital on December 29, once morest around 700 in the months previous ones. But this figure remains far from the record of 4,583 admissions in one day which was recorded on January 12, 2021.

On December 31, English hospitals treated 12,395 Covid patients, a far cry from the peak of 34,336 patients recorded on January 18, 2021. The number of patients in intensive care and that of deaths are stable and very low compared to last January .

The biggest threat for the moment concerns the situation of hospital employees: 86,716 of them were absent for health reasons on December 31, including 40,325 because of the Covid. Above all, the mobilization of a large number of beds and staff for the pandemic affected the other patients. Thus, 312,665 Britons have been waiting for more than a year for the start of their treatment, compared to 1,613 in February 2020, according to the latest official statistics.

Self-test anchored in habits

In addition, Boris Johnson has not shown inaction. The government has focused its prevention strategy on vaccination and the multiplication of tests, which allow the emergence of a new wave to be quickly understood. Since April 9, 2021, a package of seven antigenic self-tests has been sent free of charge within 24 hours to all those who request it on the government website. England is one of the countries where the population tests itself the most, especially outside of times of crisis.

These two angles allowed the government to relax its restrictions. The most salient aspect of the strategy, contact cases should no longer self-isolate as long as they tested negative, which helped prevent class closures or businesses from being affected.

Recently, Boris Johnson has taken new measures when the Omicron variant appears, starting in the first week of December. Whether it is on the wearing of the mask indoors, the recommendation to work at home or the obligation to be doubly vaccinated or to present a negative PCR test of less than forty-eight hours for “Enter nightclubs and places where large crowds gather”. Proof of the existence of a real political debate on the question, the parliamentary vote on these measures had engendered the revolt of a third of the elected conservatives once morest their own party.