The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said on Wednesday that while new Covid infections could hit a record 100,000 a day, he would not be reintroducing measures such as working from home or compulsory mask-wearing “at this time”.
But the British Medical Association said later that day it would be “wilful negligence” not to enact the government’s plan B in England to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.
Phil Urban, chief executive of Mitchells & Butler, which owns pubs and restaurants including the All Bar One and Harvester chains, said ministers had left it too late to address rising case numbers and that any action now could devastate the industry. “ People are very nervous and if you move to plan B it puts Christmas at risk. The industry is not out of the woods, and just as we get our momentum back we’d have the rug pulled out from under us.”
He said some restrictions, such as mask-wearing, would be tolerable as long as tougher curbs that could put festive trade at risk were avoided.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 22, 2021-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 22, 2021-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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