Following the news that Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has confirmed that there are no plans to implement ‘Plan B’ rules – despite cases reaching above 50,000 cases last week;

Emily Martyn, MPH, Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“The UK is dealing with high rates of COVID-19 infection, with cases rising back to the levels we saw in January. While hospitalizations have reached 1,000 daily cases for the first time in six weeks, the Government is reluctant to enact ‘Plan B’ because modelling from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) indicates that hospitalizations will not exceed the January peak. However, the modelling did not take into account numbers for additional seasonal hospitalizations such as flu admissions, which will pile on the pressure to hospitals.

“Hospitalizations may be currently low in the grand scheme of things, but infections will be high during the Christmas period. Currently, about one in 60 people in the UK has had COVID-19 in the last week. With COVID rates rising as they are, many more will be ill on Christmas day. This is not even considering the potential threat of the ‘Delta Plus’ variant, which is indicated to be more transmissible than the original delta variant.

“In 2020, the government took risks by leaving implementing COVID rules until the last minute, causing families to be separated during the Christmas period. The government should learn from their own mistakes and implement Plan B sooner, so they do not have to resort to Plan C later.”