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In a nervous response to the entry into Britain of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 — B.1.1.529 — the wearing of face coverings in shops and public transport was made law again, though by statutory instrument not by an Act of Parliament. Anyone deemed to have been in contact with a Covid sufferer faced ten days’ house arrest. MPs voted in support of the measures after their introduction. Pubs and restaurants were exempt, but schoolchildren over the age of 12 had to wear masks in communal areas. ‘If we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay,’ said Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency. But the government said people could go on with Christmas plans. All adults would be offered a booster vaccination by the end of January, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister said; 17 million booster doses had already been given. Children aged 12 or more would be offered a second dose, 12 weeks after their first. Severely immunocompromised people will be offered a fourth dose. In the seven days up to the beginning of this week, 858 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 144,724. (In the previous week, deaths had numbered 1,031.) Numbers remaining in hospital fell from about 8,000 to about 7,600.
The long-awaited White Paper on social care was presented to parliament. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was disinvited from a meeting of EU ministers on the migrant crisis after the Prime Minister published on Twitter a letter to President Emmanuel Macron of France proposing a mechanism to return failed asylum-seekers from Britain to France and the use of British troops in France to help prevent crossings in small boats.
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