Christmas will be “problematic” unless people behave cautiously and get their booster jabs, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned.
Jonathan Van-Tam spoke of “hard months” ahead as he said that now was “not the time to be complacent” with the country’s infection rates “running hot”.
People should wear masks in cinemas and when moving about in pubs and restaurants as part of more cautious behaviour to keep infections under control over the winter, he said.
Urging people to get their booster vaccines, Van-Tam said that the government should make it easier by telling people weeks in advance when they were about to become eligible.
The booster campaign has slipped back in the past week, with the UK daily average of 273,453 a day about 15 per cent lower than a week ago and figures in England broadly flat. Officials believe people put off doses during the half-term holiday while other suggest urgency has waned as Covid cases have started to fall again.
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But Van-Tam told the BBC that “too many people believe that this pandemic is now over” as he urged people to get boosters as soon as possible.
“Christmas, and indeed all of the darker winter months, are potentially going to be problematic,” he said.
Van-Tam said there were “a whole range of behaviours, including the use of face coverings, but generally the caution that people take or don’t take in terms of interacting with each other — that is going to be a big determinant in what happens between now and the kind of darkest months”.
He acknowledged it was “very difficult” to wear masks in pubs and restaurants, saying: “You can’t take them on and off in between sips of a drink. And so really what you should do, in my view, is to wear masks when mobile, and use them as you’re entering and exiting the premises.”
He said in cinemas and theatres “you’re not interacting with the audience, you are seated quite close together, and for most people there should be relatively little personal expense involved in wearing a face covering in those kinds of settings”.
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But he accepted that wearing masks in schools would be “inhibitory to the natural expressions of learning” while warning that face coverings would not be enough to keep nightclubs safe if infection rates worsened.
“What we need, to be in the best position to get through this winter, is for people who are vulnerable who are eligible for boosters – that’s really the over-50s and people under 50 with high-risk conditions – we need them to get their immunity levels as high as possible so that we go into the winter with the best overall level of protection,” he said.
Van-Tam said that infections were “still very high at the moment. They are higher than in most of Europe. And we are running quite hot”.
He said this was concerning before winter had begun, stressing: “From that perspective, I’m afraid it’s caution, followed by caution, and we need to watch these data very carefully indeed over the next days and weeks.”
While cases are down 10 per cent in a week, Van Tam said: “My worry is that the deaths are increasing and that shows that the infection is now starting to penetrate into those older age groups.
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“And that’s why the really key thing is that if you are called for your booster, if you are called for your flu vaccine, please go and get them. This could be really very important this winter, it is not the time to be complacent.”
He said that “of course everyone wants to go faster, but we are now picking up really quite considerable momentum” with boosters, adding: “I’m hopeful that the government will make things a bit easier by, through the NHS, giving people more warning of when their booster slot time is coming up – not to bring it forwards but a few weeks notice to book that and get their place in the system.”
Such a change is being under consideration, but no date has been set.
