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Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said mandatory mask-wearing will return to shops and public transport on Tuesday, as he told families to plan for Christmas ‘as normal’ despite new rules to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant.
He said on Sunday it is ‘nowhere near’ the time to reintroduce social distancing rules and work-from-home guidance, despite a raft of precautionary measures being reintroduced to tackle the concerning Covid-19 strain.
Passengers arriving to the UK have been told that from Tuesday morning they will have to take a PCR test for Covid-19, with the expectation they will have to self-isolate until they test negative.
All contacts with a suspected case of Omicron will have to isolate for 10 days, regardless of their vaccination status, amid concerns existing jabs will be less effective against the strain that is believed to spread rapidly.
Details of the plans were incomplete when announced by Boris Johnson after two cases of the variant were confirmed in England on Saturday but Mr Javid said the ‘face mask rules are planned to come in on Tuesday’ to bring the nation back closer into line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
He said it ‘would be irresponsible to make guarantees’ during the ever-changing pandemic but told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “I think people should continue with their plans as normal for Christmas, I think it’s going to be a great Christmas.”
With the Government stopping short of introducing its Plan B to tackle Covid-19 this winter, Mr Javid downplayed there being a need to reintroduce social distancing rules or work-from-home guidance.
“We know now those types of measures do carry a very heavy price, both economically, socially, in terms of non-Covid health outcomes such as impact on mental health,” he told Sky.
“So, if one was to make decisions like that they would have to be done very, very carefully and we’re not there yet, we’re nowhere near that.”
Mr Javid said he expects to receive new advice ‘imminently’, within the next couple of days, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) after it was tasked with reviewing whether boosters should be extended to all over-18s.
The group will also consider whether second doses should be offered to 12 to 15-year-olds, and whether the waiting time before a booster jab could be reduced.
“I’ve also asked the NHS to prepare for much greater capacity in our vaccination programme,” Mr Javid told The Andrew Marr Show on the BBC.
Mr Javid said the testing regime for international arrivals will be introduced “as soon as possible”, despite online passenger locator forms stating PCR tests will be required rather than lateral flow tests from 4am on Tuesday.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they intend to mirror the border restrictions.
He admitted that passengers flying in from southern Africa before 10 nations were added to the red list were not tested on landing and could have taken public transport to return home.
“I think the speed at which we acted at could not have been any faster,” he said, adding those arrivals before the change had been contacted and told to take tests.
