Covid information – stay: UK information 194,747 new instances as PM guidelines out extra lockdowns in deal with to Commons on plan B

Among the most weak folks in society are experiencing “lockdown by one other title” as care employees shortages imply they’re more and more unable to totally stay their lives, a social care boss has mentioned.

Stephen Chandler, president of the Affiliation of Administrators of Grownup Social Providers (Adass), mentioned suppliers throughout England have been reporting absences of between per cent and 1 per cent of their workforce.

He mentioned companies have been experiencing a triple risk – employees isolating or off sick with Covid, an rising variety of outbreaks in care settings, and issues with accessing important assessments and delayed outcomes.

The Omicron variant could spell the tip of the coronavirus pandemic, one among Denmark‘s high public well being officers has claimed.

Tyra Grove Krause, a number one official on the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) – the Danish equal of the UK Well being Safety Company (UKHSA), mentioned we could also be experiencing the final wave of the pandemic as mass Omicron infections may present stage of herd immunity.

She mentioned Covid will proceed to have a maintain over folks’s lives for the following two months however infections would then begin to subside.

Italy has made vaccination obligatory for folks aged 50 and over in an try and ease strain on its well being service and scale back deaths.

It’s one among only a few European nations to take action. The measure is instantly efficient and can be till 15 June.

Italy has seen greater than 138,000 Covid deaths since February 2020, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.

One-quarter of Northern Eire Ambulance Service (NIAS) staff are off work amid a surge in Covid-19 instances.

Some 221 staff are off because of the virus and one other 155 of the 1,496 workforce are off for unrelated causes.

Michael Bloomfield, NIAS chief government, mentioned the sickest sufferers are being prioritised however as ready instances get longer, could also be suggested the place doable to make their very own technique to hospital.

Scientists are inspecting a brand new Covid variant, first found in southern France final yr, to find out whether or not it warrants concern.

Unofficially named IHU, the brand new variant has to this point contaminated 12 folks dwelling within the southeast of France.

A number of earlier variants of the virus equivalent to Omicron and Delta stay in circulation globally.

Joe Sommerlad looks at which variants are the place:

The West Finish productions of Mary Poppins and Phantom Of The Opera will minimize the variety of weekly performances because the leisure sector continues to endure from the surge in coronavirus instances.

Mary Poppins on the Prince Edward Theatre will now transfer from eight to 6 performances per week for a month from Monday.

The Phantom Of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre additionally scrapped two performances per week.

Pressing operations are actually being delayed and restricted in NHS hospitals, as well being leaders and MPs warn of the results of Boris Johnson’s resolution to permit England to “journey out” the Omicron wave with out additional restrictions, The Impartial has learnt.

NHS England has but to inform trusts they will stand down pressing operations. However the president of the Intensive Care Society, Dr Stephen Webb, informed The Impartial that cardiac and most cancers procedures have been being postponed as a result of shortages of employees, write Rebecca Thomas and Andrew Woodcock.

“Employees isolation and employees sickness as a result of Covid restricts our capacity to take care of different sufferers,” he mentioned. “We’re listening to from our members that nearly all intensive care items (ICUs) are below pressure primarily due to staffing constraints and that is leading to many having to restrict entry for sufferers having pressing operations.

The most recent information for Covid-19 by UK native authority present that instances charges are up in 9 out of 10 areas.

Derry Metropolis & Strabane in Northern Eire has the very best charge of the 377 native authority areas at 4,420.6 per 100,000 folks, up from 1,624.7 per week earlier.

Copeland in Cumbria was England’s highest at 3,076.1, up from 1336.

Blaenau Gwent had the very best charge in Wales at 2,937.7, up from 76, and Inverclyde has the very best charge in Scotland at 2,587.6, up from 1.218.

Downing Road mentioned decreasing the seven-day isolation interval additional would threat rising the variety of infectious folks spreading coronavirus.

The federal government yesterday rejected calls to chop the Covid self-isolation interval regardless of warnings of mass labour shortages.

The prime minister’s official spokesman in the present day mentioned: “The clear recommendation we’ve got for the time being is decreasing it additional would threat rising considerably the prospect of individuals returning to work and additional folks spreading Omicron and subsequently resulting in much more folks isolating.”

Nadhim Zahawi mentioned employees absences have been more likely to rise in colleges, after shortages compelled a number of colleges in England to shut.

The schooling secretary mentioned: “Colleges can be struggling some extent of employees absences.

“On the finish of final yr the determine was about 8 per cent of employees off, and that’s in all probability more likely to rise with rising instances at school and naturally younger folks as we return to highschool.”