Boris Johnson is said to have avoided self

Enlarge image

Boris Johnson

Photo: Tayfun Salci / imago images / ZUMA Wire

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have broken rules to fight the pandemic again.

After the recording of the New Year's address at the end of 2020, the head of government did not go into quarantine, although a cameraman tested positive for Corona afterwards.

The newspaper "Mirror" reported.

The infected person is said to have not worn a mask and was less than two meters away from Johnson, the newspaper reported, citing a source who is said to be close to the Prime Minister.

Under these circumstances, contact persons actually had to self-isolate for ten days according to the rules of the time.

A UK government spokesman said the contact was not as close and less than 15 minutes, which is why Johnson did not isolate himself.

According to the »Mirror«, recordings on the official account of Downing Street in the photo network Flickr suggest a longer and closer contact.

In the past few weeks, several revelations by the newspaper and other media outlets have put Johnson under pressure.

For example, several parties are said to have been celebrated on Downing Street during the strict Corona lockdowns (read more here).

Despite record numbers of infections, no stricter measures

Johnson admitted on Tuesday that the pressure on the UK healthcare system is expected to continue for several weeks. So far, however, the British government has been resisting the introduction of stricter measures despite the record number of new infections. Several British clinics have declared a disaster because of blatant staff shortages in connection with the Omikron variant. At least six hospital foundations, some of which include several clinics, have already decided to take this step in view of the violent corona wave, as the BBC reported on Tuesday.

On Monday, almost 160,000 new infections with the corona virus were reported in England and Scotland alone, but due to the holidays, the numbers are patchy and the number of unreported cases is likely to be high.

The seven-day incidence was last at 1526 (as of December 29).

At the start of school in England, school principals expect massive staff losses.

The high number of infections is already leaving its mark in other areas: According to the Rail Delivery Group, one in ten train employees is currently on sick leave.

as / dpa