Health secretary Sajid Javid ‘cautiously optimistic’ that UK’s restrictions will ease next week
Boris Johnson is expected to announce an easing of Covid-19 plan B restrictions in England.
The Prime Minister will go through the latest Covid-19 data on Wednesday morning with his ministers before making a statement to MPs this afternoon in the House of Commons.
Plan B restrictions, which were introduced before Christmas amid the spread of the Omicron variant, include guidance to work from home, Covid passes and mandatory masks wearing in shops and on public transport.
It comes as the World Health Orginsation (WHO) has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, cautioning against taking the Omicron variant lightly.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, addressing a press conference from Geneva on Tuesday, said the Omicron variant had led to 18 million new infections across the world over the past week. While the variant may prove to be less severe on average, “the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading,” he said.
