COVID cases in UK to Oct 18 2021 metro graphics
Graph shows how cases have been steadily rising for more than a week (Picture: Metro Graphics)

New Covid restrictions could be needed if infections continue to soar after yesterday’s highest daily total since July.

The 49,156 new cases raised the spectre of indoor face masks, Covid passports becoming mandatory at large events and working from home rules returning.

The measures are a part of Boris Johnson’s Plan B, which the government has ruled out introducing imminently.

But he admitted the winter months ahead will be ‘challenging’.

Scientists said it is ‘critical’ the rollout of booster jabs is accelerated after projections that immunity against the virus may be waning.

Plan A puts the vaccination drive as the first line of defence, with the prime minister saying unvaccinated Brits are up to nine times more likely to die, depending on their age, than if they have had both jabs.

Vaccine graphic METRO GRAPHICS Picture: Metro.co.uk
Four million people are yet to have their second jab (Picture: Metro Graphics)

The PM’s official spokesman said: ‘There is absolutely no plan to introduce Plan B currently. We retain that capability if required if we believe the NHS is coming under unsustainable pressure.

‘We obviously keep very close watch on the latest statistics. We always knew the coming months would be challenging.’ 

A member of the public receives a dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine at a vaccination centre in Derby, central England on September 20, 2021. - Frontline health and social care workers, older people and the clinically vulnerable in Britain started on Monday to receive a booster jab against Covid 19. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly 79% of people aged 12 and over in Britain are double jabbed (Picture: AFP/Getty)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 19: Despite changes to Covid regulations passengers at Westminster use the tube much the same as they have over the last 16 months instead today, choosing to wear face coverings and trying to observe social distance where possible on July 19, 2021 in London, United Kingdom. As of 12:01 on Monday, July 19, England will drop most of its remaining Covid-19 social restrictions, such as those requiring indoor mask-wearing and limits on group gatherings, among other rules. These changes come despite rising infections, pitting the country's vaccination programme against the virus's more contagious Delta variant. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)
Face masks remain compulsory on Transport for London services (Picture: Getty)

Analysis shows only 3.7 million of the 8.5 million people deemed clinically vulnerable who were double jabbed more than six months ago have received a booster.

It leaves more than half of them (4.8 million) with potentially weakened immunity against coronavirus.

Covid restrictions could be needed if infections continue to soar after yesterday’s highest daily total since July.
There was a 30.5% rise in little over a week (Picture: Metro Graphics)

As many as 22 million people will be ready for their third jab by mid-December, but on the current trajectory some will be waiting until the end of January for theirs.

Professor Neil Ferguson, whose data was instrumental in bringing about the first lockdown in March last year, listed two reasons why Brits may be more exposed to Covid this winter than nearby Western European countries.

He told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: ‘Partly, we were very successful in getting vaccination rolled out early and we know that gradually immunity wanes over time after you’ve had that second dose, so how early we were means we are a bit more vulnerable.

‘Second, we relied more on the AstraZeneca vaccine and, while that protects very well against very severe outcomes of Covid, it protects slightly less well than Pfizer against infection and transmission, particularly in the face of the Delta variant.’

PROFESSOR NEIL FERGUSON - IMPERIAL COLLEGE Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health
Prof Ferguson is a mathematical biologist at ICL (Picture: Imperial College)

Professor Ferguson added that Covid booster jabs were ‘absolutely’ the answer to waning immunity.

He said: ‘I do think it’s critical we accelerate the booster programme.

‘The other thing is infection rates are highest in teenagers at the moment and most other European countries are ahead of us in vaccinating teenagers and giving them two doses, not just one dose.’

MORE : Everything we know about Boris Johnson’s Covid winter plan

MORE : UK records nearly 50,000 new Covid cases as expert warns immunity is waning

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