NOW CUT THE 10-DAY RULE
As some experts say Omicron patients recover faster – and infections threaten to paralyse Britain – call for return to 7-day isolation
Covid isolation rules must be relaxed to stop Britain grinding to a halt, health experts and business chiefs said last night.
they warned the ten-day rule was ‘lockdown by stealth’ – keeping people at home even when their symptoms and infectiousness had eased.
Leading doctors suggested that quarantine could be ended early for those who test negative for at least two days in a row.
Daily virus cases hit a record 93,000 yesterday and are expected to go much higher – raising fears that self-isolation will cause chaos to schools, hospitals and the economy.
It is not yet known whether omicron – the Covid variant driving the surge – is milder.
however, victims recover faster and may become less infectious just three to five days
after a positive test, according to evidence from South Africa.
‘People are most infectious in the first five days, after which time infectiousness falls,’ said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia.
‘Some people are no longer infectious after three days and it makes no sense to keep them locked up.
‘Isolating people for ten days when they are no longer infectious will harm the economy and leave vital public services, such as the NHS, shortstaffed. People could perhaps take a daily lateral flow test and be allowed to leave quarantine if they test negative for two days in a row.’
Dr Bharat Pankhania, a lecturer at the University of Exeter medical school, added: ‘Safely reducing the quarantine period from ten days could increase compliance, improve staffing in healthcare and benefit the economy.
‘Confirmed cases may take a daily lateral flow test and be allowed to leave after having three negatives in a row, or take one PCR after five days.’
The calls came as: n The NHS revealed it gave a record 861,306 booster vaccine doses on Thursday; n Downing Street announced a Cobra meeting, triggering speculation of more restrictions before Christmas; n The Welsh government announced it would shut nightclubs from December 27 and bring back two-metre social distancing in offices; n Ireland is to impose an 8pm curfew for hospitality venues; n Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College London Covid modelling expert, claimed up to 5,000 deaths a day could be caused by Omicron this winter; n But the latest official figures showed that there are only 65 patients in hospital with it; n New figures showed fewer people have died or been hospitalised with Omicron in South Africa despite record cases there; n Chancellor Rishi Sunak flew back from California for emergency talks with hospitality bosses on financial help; n Racecourses, Christmas markets and football stadiums will be among 3,000 sites used as jab centres this weekend; n Vaccine shortages forced pharmacies to cancel booster appointments yesterday; n Care homes were warned they must allow residents to see relatives over Christmas; n Estimates that Omicron cases were doubling every two days have been downgraded because people are behaving more cautiously.
Self-isolation – from the point of infection or a positive test – was initially one week until it was extended to ten days in July 2020.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory party leader, said the lower figure could be reinstated: ‘This variant is not as fierce, and we have vaccines in play, so there is a very good argument for shortening the time that people have to selfisolate for.’
Des Gunewardena, chief executive of D&D London restaurant group, said: ‘The period of isolation should certainly be reviewed in the con
‘Will harm the economy’
‘This variant is not as fierce’
text of Omicron causing a milder and more short-lived illness than Delta.’
Jonathan Neame of Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer, said: ‘Once we are past Christmas, and assuming no material change in deaths and hospitalisations, I would call for all restrictions to be lifted and encourage people to get boosted if they have not already. Quarantine should be cut or removed altogether.’
Around 12,000 NHS workers were off sick or isolating because of Covid on any one day last week and more than one in 20 primary pupils were testing positive.
BORIS JOHNSON feared the voters of North Shropshire might give him a bloody nose. What he got was more like a punishment beating.
By-elections are notorious for throwing up surprising results. But the seismic shock from this one was off the scale.
After all, this rural constituency epitomised the phrase ‘True Blue’. Hugely pro-Brexit, it is Conservative with a big ‘C’. Indeed, it has returned a Tory MP for all but two of the last 189 years.
Yet its seemingly impregnable 23,000 majority was demolished by the Liberal Democrats on the back of a gargantuan 34per cent swing – the seventh largest since the Second World War.
The greatest tragedy of such an ignominious mauling, however, was that the Prime Minister positively invited it.
A torrent of unforced errors, hypocrisy and impropriety by the Government persuaded appalled voters to desert the Tories in astonishing numbers.
How fortunes turn. Two years ago, Mr Johnson was the darling of his party, having demolished Labour’s Red Wall and served up a thumping 80-seat majority.
The confident talk then was of him going on to win at least two terms. After this drubbing, there are serious doubts he will survive long enough to complete one.
For make no mistake, this was a verdict not on the party, but on its leader.
Firstly, there was anger over his badly misjudged attempt to block the Commons suspension of Owen Paterson for flagrantly breaching lobbying rules.
It looked corrupt, backfired spectacularly and led to Mr Paterson’s resignation – triggering this calamitous by-election.
Then there were lurid headlines over sleaze, wallpaper and illegal lockdown Christmas parties in Downing Street.
And most recently the slow creep back into lockdown, during which Mr Johnson appears to have sub-contracted Covid policy to unelected scientific advisers – with catastrophic results.
Blood-curdling warnings about Omicron have terrified people into cowering at home, prompting struggling shops, pubs and restaurants to shut at what should be their busiest time of the year.
Troublingly, Mr Johnson seems to suggest some of the blame for the ballot box humiliation lies with the electorate for being distracted by lurid headlines.
He’s 100 per cent wrong. The problems lie firmly inside No10, with its disturbingly amateurish operation.
So the Daily Mail has a pungent message for the PM: Urgently address this festering rot and cut out the own goals. Equally, rediscover your Tory instincts.
Millions voted for sound finances, less regulation, more personal freedom, sensible environmentalism, and secure borders. Instead, they got tax-and-spend, draconian lockdowns, a ruinous green agenda, and a Channel taxi service for illegal migrants.
So Mr Johnson must locate the reset button and press it – swiftly.
But we also have a message to mutinous Tory backbenchers: Stop sharpening your knives. A bitter leadership contest while the pandemic rages would be grotesquely selfindulgent. And who is a viable alternative?
For all his faults, Boris remains the Conservatives’ most potent political asset, retaining an almost unique ability to speak to all parts of the country at once.
He stands head and shoulders above Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a selfconfessed socialist who happily fought for Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister, and who would spell disaster for the UK.
Dire as the North Shropshire result is, we are in mid-term, when most governments suffer opinion poll slides.
No one should write Mr Johnson off. He has defied political gravity before. He is a proven winner. If he and his party can work through their differences, he can win again.