Lockdown must be avoided, an Oxford professor has warned, as he said “it’s becoming clearer all that ministers see is the worst-case scenario”.

       Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, warned that the country was in “deep, deep trouble” if it entered into “annual winter lockdowns”, adding that “this is as good as it gets when you consider the predictable rise in winter pathogens at this time of the year”.

       Prof Heneghan said that “you have to have a balanced proportion when you get the models”.

       “But actually those models start to break down very rapidly and they’re already breaking down,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

       He said that the data remained unclear, adding that restrictions should be dependent on “risk and the people around you”.

       “But if you take the cases aside and focus on the data that matters, the number of patients that's admitted has hardly changed in a week,” he said, adding that “if you focus on the information that matters, you come up with a very different scenario”.

       ？？Follow the latest updates below.

       A GP has said a vaccine clinic in London has said that she is "very concerned" about staff shortages affecting vaccinations, adding that "we need to look at whether this 10-day isolation period is really necessary".

       Dr Rosemary Leonard said that two staff members have had go off work, "both double vaccinated and neither... ill".

       She added that one of them was "very frustrated to have to go home for 10 days."

       "I do think personally we need to look at whether this 10-day isolation period is necessary, with more and more people going off sick and emergency services being hit by this 10-day absence rule," she said on BBC Breakfast.

       "When your lateral flow test is negative, why on earth can't you get back to work," she asked.

       "We are very much trying to operate business as usual," she said, "but it does mean extremely long hours" for staff.

       Dominic Raab has said that the severity of omicron is crucial to the Government's decision on whether to implement further restrictions, adding that "we just don't have hard data" yet.

       The Deputy Prime Minister refused to rule out a Christmas lockdown, reiterating that the Government "can't make hard, fast guarantees".

       "It depends on the severity of the omicron cases," he said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

       Mr Raab urged "common-sense caution" on interactions over the Christmas period.

       Responding to Lord Frost's letter and the pushback against scientists' advice, Mr Raab said that he doesn't agree "with his analysis".

       "If we hadn't have taken the measures that we have to support public health... we would have seen much more damage done."

       However, he said that "we will get through this, we will defeat omicron, we will defeat Covid".

       Patricia Marquis, the England director at the Royal College of Nursing, has said it is looking like a "very bleak picture" for nursing staff over the next few weeks.

       She told BBC Breakfast on Monday: "Across the system, the pressures have been there now for a long time. Before the pandemic, there weren't enough staff to deliver what was needed.

       "As the pandemic has gone on, people have become more and more physically exhausted, but also mentally exhausted by what's happened over the last 18 months, two years. So, staff are looking forward now thinking, 'Oh my goodness, what is coming?'

       "In many places they're already under immense stress and pressure, and so they are starting to go off sick themselves with Covid, but also mental and physical exhaustion.

       "It is looking like a very bleak picture for them over the next few weeks."

       Mr Raab said all Cabinet ministers "question" the scientific advice but reiterated his support for the "approach the Government has taken so far".

       He told Sky News: "All of us question the advice and I don't think that should be presented in some sort of tectonic opposition to the scientists.

       "The scientists will tell you that they are constantly testing the evidence and the advice amongst themselves, let alone with politicians. So, it's quite right that we get the balance right."

       When pressed once again whether he was one of the Cabinet ministers questioning the scientific advice, Mr Raab said: "No, no. I fully support the approach that the Government has taken so far, but it's absolutely right ... I mean it'd be odd if Cabinet and ministers weren't in the meetings we have, testing the data and the approach. Actually, that's very healthy."

       Dominic Raab has said that the country “will have a much better Christmas than last year”, but he refused to rule out further Covid-19 restrictions.

       The Deputy Prime Minister said that “we are in a better position” than we were last year, “because of the vaccination level”, but he warned that “we will need to be careful and cautious”.

       However, Mr Raab was unable to say that no more restrictions would be introduced. “You can’t make hard and fast guarantees,” he said on Sky News, adding that “we have to track the data as it comes through.”

       Mr Raab said that “a large proportion of those who are in hospital are unvaccinated”, with 105 people currently hospitalised with the omicron variant.

       “The one thing we do know is that omicron is doubling every two or three days,” he warned.

       Mr Raab said that he "fully" supports the Government's approach, although he acknowledged that "a lot of the modelling that's being thrown around is the worst-case scenario".

       Need help?

       Visit our adblocking instructions page.