Covid: England’s Plan B measures continue while PCR test rules changeon January 5, 2022 at 6:11 pm

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday evening. We’ll have another update for you tomorrow morning.

England’s current Plan B rules will carry on for at least another three weeks, Boris Johnson has confirmed in the Commons. The prime minister told MPs the Covid measures will be reviewed again by 26 January and cannot be scrapped immediately because hospital admissions are rising rapidly. Latest figures show 17,276 people were in hospital in the UK with Covid as of 4 January. The PM also announced a few changes to the travel rules that will please the tourism industry. From 04:00 GMT on Friday, double-jabbed people coming to England will no longer need to show proof of a negative test before they set off. From Sunday, they will also be able to take lateral flow tests rather than PCRs after arriving in England and will not be required to self-isolate while awaiting the results.

There’s been an announcement on Covid tests today. The rules are changing, and now mean that if you test positive with a lateral flow test but don’t have any symptoms, you do not need to get a follow-up PCR. People who have symptoms will still need to take a PCR test regardless – and anyone who tests positive with any test but self-isolate. The change comes into force in England from 11 January, in Northern Ireland immediately and in Scotland and Wales from Thursday. The change will free up capacity in testing labs, and the UK Health Security Agency said it was a temporary measure while Covid rates remain high. Latest stats from the Office for National Statistics said around one in 15 people in private households in England had Covid in the last week of the 2021. Scotland has also followed suit with the rest of the UK and today cut the self-isolation period to seven days for people who test negative twice.

World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic’s entry into Australia has been delayed over an issue with his visa and exemption from being vaccinated against Covid. Players taking part in the Australian Open must be jabbed or have an exemption approved by an independent panel. Defending champion Djokovic announced yesterday he would be playing thanks to an exemption but upon arriving at the airport in Melbourne it emerged the Serbian star’s team had not requested a visa that permits medical exemptions for being unvaccinated. And Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned there will be “no special rules” for Djokovic – who said last year he was opposed to vaccination – and said he “could be on the next plane home” unless he provides evidence he genuinely can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.

At least 10 hospital trusts across England have now declared critical incidents since Christmas, as the healthcare system struggles with the Omicron wave and staff shortages due to Covid. Now we’ve learnt that some non-urgent surgery is being halted at Greater Manchester hospitals. Health bosses say about 15% of their workforce were either ill with Covid or isolating. The NHS is always under pressure this time of year and critical incidents have been declared in previous winters – but that’s not to say the health service isn’t facing a unique set of pressures this year, says our health correspondent. Admissions for Covid are already twice what would normally be seen for all types of respiratory infections and staff absences are also double what they traditionally would be. And on both measures the situation is getting worse. “We are falling like flies at the moment,” one doctor at a medical practice in Cambridgeshire tells the BBC.

A father-of-three says he has been given a “second chance” after spending Christmas in an intensive care unit with coronavirus. Andy Pugh, from Worcester, had declined to have a Covid vaccine before he became ill on 4 December – and was told by doctors in intensive care he had a 50% chance of surviving. Now in recovery, he said his experience had changed his perspective and urged others like him to get a jab. In intensive care he was “really scared”, he said. “I was hallucinating, thinking the doctors were trying to kill me, when really they were trying to help me. They phoned up my Mrs and said ‘you’ve got to prepare for the worst’.” Read the full story here.

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