Health Secretary Sajid Javid to make major Covid announcement later today

Health Secretary Sajid Javid will be hosting a No. 10 press conference at 5pm today where he is expected to make a major Covid announcement.

According to various reports, the Health Secretary will insist there’s no need yet for any new Covid restrictions to be introduced, despite rising cases across the country. 

He is also expected to urge those over the age of fifty to come forward and get their third shot – known as a booster jab – so further restrictions on daily life won’t be needed, but will also warn that activating Plan B – which would mean face masks, working from home, and vaccine passports – can’t yet be ruled out.

A spokesperson for No. 10 has stressed today that there are no current plans for any further lockdowns across England. They said, as per Sky News: “We have set out our autumn and winter plan in terms of ‘plan A’ and ‘plan B’, and we continue to look at the latest scientific data.

“There isn’t any proposed plan for any further lockdowns. We are sticking to the autumn and winter plan we have set out.”

However, scientists and medical experts have warned that, as the weather gets colder and people spend more time socialising indoors and working from their offices, the transmission rates of Covid are likely to rise drastically.

Engin Akyurt / Unsplash

Professor Martin Hibberd, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Guardian: “In winter, cases of respiratory disease go up and we need to have as many vaccinations as possible to keep that increase from becoming a real problem.”

He added that the danger of a new strain of the Covid-19 virus that is even more transmissible or more able to avoid protection provided by vaccines could emerge in coming months and ‘is a real prospect’.

“It is clear we need to be aware that a serious new variant could appear, and keep a close watch in order to pinpoint its appearance as soon as possible.”