Because of Omikron: British government fears massive loss of work

The rapid spread of the Corona variant Omikron could have serious effects on the British labor market in the coming weeks. As the Guardian reports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that up to a quarter of workers could be absent due to illness or quarantine. Accordingly, the government fears massive staff shortages, especially in the public sector. Johnson has instructed the responsible ministers to prepare for such a scenario with contingency plans, it is said.

This fear is not unfounded, as a report in the “Sunday Times” suggests. The newspaper published figures, according to which more than 110,000 workers in the health sector were absent from work last Friday. That corresponds to almost one in ten employees. Accordingly, around half of them were sick or had to be quarantined because of the corona virus. The number of hospital staff absent has multiplied since the end of November, according to figures from the national health service NHS.

Because of the rapid spread of the Omikron variant, the English health authorities announced on Thursday that they would provide up to 4,000 additional hospital beds.

England: Corona daily record because of Omicron

Great Britain is currently facing new record numbers of new corona infections from Omikron. 189,000 new infections were reported within 24 hours on Friday. 162,572 of these cases in England alone – a daily record in the largest British part of the country. The number of hospital admissions for Covid-19 has also been rising again for some time and is not higher than it has been since March.

Health Minister Sajid Javid wrote in an article for the Daily Mail newspaper on Saturday that the number of patients in the intensive care units is stable. It is still a long way from the numbers that existed around a year ago. This is also due to the massive vaccination campaign in the kingdom. The country is now “in a much stronger position”.

Perhaps for this reason too, the British government does not want to impose any new corona restrictions for the time being. The country must “try to live with Covid-19,” Javid continued. There will only be new restrictions “as an absolute last resort”.

Meanwhile, the government recommended on Sunday that pupils from the seventh grade in England should wear masks again. The preliminary recommendation is to ensure that as many young people can attend school for as long as possible.

Lauterbach with another vaccination appeal

The German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expressed concern on Twitter about developments in Great Britain on Saturday evening. Omikron led to “very many” hospital admissions there, according to Lauterbach. Intensive care admissions, however, rose more slowly. A “tragedy” has not occurred there so far, because the elderly have a “high” vaccination rate and 75 percent are boosted. The proportion of those boosted is significantly higher than in Germany, which is why the British situation is not comparable to the one here.

Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) does not yet see the risk of sudden staff shortages in Germany in the public sector, especially in clinics and other care areas. “Right now we don’t need that because our critical infrastructure has not yet been put out of action,” said Giffey on Deutschlandfunk. You see it as a step model. Only when it is foreseeable that the police, fire brigade and other institutions will no longer be able to work should measures such as a shortened corona quarantine be discussed.

To prevent it from getting that far, Lauterbach again advertised wearing masks in “Bild am Sonntag” and once again appealed to people to get vaccinated. “Many unvaccinated people have the feeling that the train has left for them anyway. That’s not true!” The first vaccination drastically reduces the risk of death after just 14 days. “By increasing the number of primary vaccinations, we can effectively reduce the number of corona deaths in the Omicron wave,” he said.

Sources: with DPA and AFP