Scientists are warning that it is too early for the country to start “living with Covid”, after cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi suggested that the UK could lead the world in moving from a pandemic to endemic phase of the disease.
The former vaccines minister said he would like to see isolation after a positive test reduced from seven to five days to help tackle staffing shortages in the NHS, schools and other critical services.
But he denied that the government is imminently planning to end the provision of free Covid testing except for people with symptoms and those in high-risk settings such as care homes.
There was widespread alarm at a Sunday Times report that free tests could be scaled back within weeks in order to rein in a bill which has already topped ￡6bn.
And while Mr Zahawi said that this was “absolutely not where we are at”, he made clear that the government is preparing for a new stage in its Covid response, where the virus will be treated as part of the normal range of ongoing health problems rather than a national emergency.
Recommended Hospital ‘could lose up to 1,000 workers as jabs made mandatory for NHS staff’ Plans for up to a quarter of teachers to be off work due to Omicron, says Zahawi Zahawi: Teacher absences will see bumpy two weeks for schools as pupils return
“I hope we will be one of the first major economies to demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic and then deal with this for however long it remains – whether that’s five, six, seven or 10 years,” he told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday.
Mr Zahawi said the authorities must be “careful” about changing rules about staying at home after a positive test and said he would respect the outcome of the UK Health Security Agency’s current review on whether to move to five-day isolation.
But he added: “Of course it would help for that to happen as soon as possible.
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UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois
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UK news in pictures 6 January 2022 People walk through frost and mist alongside a frozen lake during sunrise in Bushy Park, London
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UK news in pictures 5 January 2022 A skier jumps on the slopes at Allenheads in the Pennines to the north of Weardale in Northumberland
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UK news in pictures 4 January 2022 Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland
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UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque
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UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelsea’s Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge
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UK news in pictures 1 January 2022 New Year’s Eve Lasers, drones and fireworks illuminate the sky in front of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich shortly after midnight in London
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UK news in pictures 31 December 2021 Competitors in fancy dress run across the Pennine tops near Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the annual Auld Lang Syne Fell race which attracts hundreds of runners every year
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UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland
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UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket
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UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queen’s Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London
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UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London
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UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham
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UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip
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UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London
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UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester
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UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge.
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UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year
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UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton
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UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux
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UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent
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UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election
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UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire
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UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle
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UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster
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UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds
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UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds,
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UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judge’s decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
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UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service
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UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine
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UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow
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UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra
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UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother
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UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum
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UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar
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UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week
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UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana
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UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow
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UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as “Storm Arwen” triggered a rare “red weather” warning
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England
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UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London
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UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel.
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UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London
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UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead
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UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services
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“It would certainly help mitigate some of the pressures on schools and our critical workforce and others.”
Meanwhile, the former head of the government’s vaccine taskforce, Dr Clive Dix, said the UK should stop mass inoculation campaigns after the current booster drive and concentrate on a “more targeted approach for the vulnerable”.
“It’s pointless to keep giving more and more vaccine to people who are not going to get very ill,” said Dr Dix. “We should just let them get ill and let them deal with that.
“Stop measuring case numbers and getting fixated by stopping those numbers. We’re not going to stop those numbers.”
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon warned that ditching free lateral flow tests would be an “utterly wrong-headed” move, while Labour said it would be “the wrong decision at the wrong time”.
And the CBI said that moving away from free testing now would make “no economic sense” because of its importance in keeping the country open for business.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Now is not the time to throw in the towel in the fight against Covid. The government must guarantee free lateral flow tests for as long as they are asking people to self-isolate.”
Meanwhile, scientists voiced concern that the government appeared to be signalling that it was ready to move the UK towards “living with Covid”.
University College London professor Christina Pagel said: “A virus isn’t endemic just because a government minister says it is and just because people want it to be.
“Learning to live with Covid would actually involve some learning. For instance, creating safer environments through mass investment in clean air. Pretending Covid is not a problem is not the same thing.”
Prof Pagel said that the “minimal public health response” to the Omicron variant adopted by the government in England “seems set to doom us to massive surges once or twice a year”.
“If that continues we’ll keep picking off the vulnerable, keep stressing a weakening NHS, [and] create more chronic illness and mass disruption through people off sick every time, with a lower quality of life for all of us,” she added.
GP Dr Helen Salisbury, a member of the Independent Sage group of scientists and medics, said: “People are talking about Covid ‘becoming endemic’ as if this is a good thing.
“TB and smallpox were once endemic in the UK – it doesn’t mean mild, it just means widespread.
“Other countries aren’t throwing in the towel – why has our government given up trying to protect us?”
And Oxford University professor of primary care Trisha Greenhalgh said: “Stop testing, play it down, normalise the deaths, deny the long-term consequences, learn to live with it, mock the scientists... I’m trying to imagine what would’ve happened if we’d taken the same approach to a previous fast-spreading infectious disease, such as smallpox, polio, TB or HIV.”
Latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency showed that since last Monday, more than 1.2 million people have tested positive for the virus – a 6.6 per cent increase on the previous week.
Recommended Scotland not considering shortening isolation period, Holyrood minister says Lateral flow tests to stay free says minister amid reports they may be limited Move to five days’ Covid isolation ‘as soon as possible’, says minister
On Thursday, there were 18,454 people in hospital with coronavirus, up from 14,126 a week before. Just under five per cent of patients required mechanical ventilation to help them breathe.
A further 97 deaths and 141,472 new infections were reported on Sunday.