Latest updates: Edward Argar says ‘we would expect to see the number of cases rise’ as Scotland announces six Omicron cases
- Six Omicron cases found in Scotland as ministers resist calls for tougher rules
Edward Argar, the health minister for England, was doing his best to quash alarmism in his morning interviews this morning. Here are some of the key points he made.
It’s in the nature of the venue. In a pub, you’re drinking. You can’t do that if you’re wearing a mask. And in restaurants, you’re normally seated at your table to give your order, you stay at your table with your group of friends or your partner or whoever you’re there with, and similarly in pubs you are normally – even when you’re standing up rather than sitting down – you’re drinking.
And therefore it’s in the nature of the hospitality industry, the hospitality trade. And therefore, we think this is a proportionate and reasonable way to put in a precaution to give us that time to better understand this variant by slowing down the seeding and the spreading of it.
We think that in hospitality settings that people should be wearing a mask … Especially if you’re moving around the pub, people should be wearing their masks in hospitality settings. If you’re [in] an indoor setting, there’s no distinction between a pub, sitting in a pub, or sitting on a train, or sitting in a hospital. It’s still a venue that’s indoors and we should be taking the necessary measures to protect people around us.
We’re confident that test and trace can meet this challenge.
And just by way of an example, I think 91% of contacts, where they’re given by someone who tests positive at the moment, are being reached and contacted within the appropriate time. So it has come a long, long way from when it was first set up. And I’m confident it will be able to scale up and meet the challenge.
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