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Royal London Hospital emergency room: patient numbers in UK intensive care units stable
Photo: VICKIE FLORES / EPA-EFE
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for emergency plans for the scenario that in the coming weeks up to a quarter of workers could be on sick leave or in quarantine due to the rapid spread of the Omikron variant.
As the Guardian reports, the government is concerned that there could be massive failures, especially in the public sector.
Johnson has therefore asked the responsible ministers to work out "robust" plans for an emergency.
On Friday, more than 110,000 workers in the health sector were absent from work, as the "Sunday Times" reported.
That corresponds to almost one in ten employees.
Accordingly, around half of them were sick with Covid-19 or had to be quarantined.
Great Britain is currently facing new record numbers of new Covid-19 infections.
This is mainly due to the omicron variant of the virus.
189,000 new infections were reported within 24 hours on Friday.
The number of hospital admissions has also been on the rise again for some time and is higher than it has been since March.
Older students in England are supposed to wear masks again
Health Minister Sajid Javid wrote in an article for the Daily Mail newspaper on Saturday that the number of patients in the intensive care units was stable.
It is still a long way from the numbers that existed around a year ago.
This is also due to the massive vaccination campaign in the kingdom.
That is why there should only be new restrictions in Great Britain "as an absolute last resort," said Javid.
The country must "try to live with Covid-19".
In England, however, older students should wear masks again in the classroom.
The provisional recommendation applies to pupils from the seventh grade, i.e. around the age of twelve.
The government announced this on Sunday a few days before classes started again.
This is to ensure that as many young people can attend school for as long as possible.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, a mask recommendation has long been in place in classrooms.
In the UK, health policy is a matter for regional governments.
The central government in London is responsible for England, which has no government of its own.
lov / AFP / dpa