Covid Plan B – will Johnson push the button?

It may no longer adorn the front pages every day and the ministerial press conferences are off the tea-time schedules (though back on tonight with The Saj), but Covid-19 remains a public health crisis.

The UK registered 43,738 confirmed Covid cases yesterday and 223 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. That is substantially greater than similar European countries.

The Government is at present unwilling to press the button labelled ‘Plan B’, which would include requiring the use of vaccine certification in certain settings, legally mandated face coverings and asking more people to work from home if they can.

It still hopes Plan A – booster jabs for the elderly and vaccinations for 12-15-year-olds will do the trick. Yet our vaccine rollout – once hailed as a marvel – has slowed to a trickle.

Millions of people eligible for that third dose – so crucial given concerns about waning immunity – have yet to get the call.

The scientific consensus is that the end destination of Covid-19 is endemicity, like influenza. It will crop up every winter and will sadly kill vulnerable people, but thanks to immunity from vaccine and infection – and barring some terrible mutation – it will not lead to annual lockdowns.

Yet the speed with which we arrive at that end state, and the number of people who will die along the way, is far from certain.

This is not about calling for another lockdown or permanent social distancing. I simply observe that, from face masks to Covid passports to administering booster jabs as quickly as possible, Britain is not grasping at all the low-hanging fruit in order to limit transmission of the virus. And winter is coming...

In the comment pages, Martha Gill explains why banning anonymous accounts online won’t work if the aim is to protect our MPs and democracy.

Meanwhile, City Editor Oscar Williams-Grut says Rishi Sunak is right to give banks a helping hand on tax.

And finally, need to take the Zentral line? Hafsa Khalil tried the new ‘meditation corners’ and ‘chill-out’ carriages on the DLR – here’s her honest opinion.

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