The Health Secretary said he will set out a plan by spring on how the Government thinks the country can “learn to live with Covid”.
It comes amid news more than 400 cases of the new BA.2 variant nicknamed “stealth Omicron” have been identified in the UK, according to latest figures.
Now Sajid Javid has lifted the lid on the plan which will detail how the country can live alongside Covid in the same vein people live with flu.
He shared vaccines, treatments such as antivirals, and testing will be “top of the list”.
“We’ve got to find a way to live with it (Covid) in the same way, let’s say, we live with flu, you know, and I’m not for a second sort of saying it’s like flu, you know, look at sadly all the deaths we’ve had from Covid – over 150,000 from the start.” He told the Health and Social Care Committee.
“It’s about understanding we do now have defences which we didn’t have before and just as sort of flu doesn’t stop society and stop life, we mustn’t let Covid do that anymore.”
The Health Secretary said around 77,000 NHS workers remain unvaccinated against Covid.
He said it is the “professional duty of every NHS worker to get vaccinated”.
Mr Javid told the Health and Social Care Committee: “Even before the mandate, the vast, vast majority had. Since the mandate, since we announced a consultation in September, we’ve had around 100,000 in the NHS that were unvaccinated at that point that have come forward. So there’s been a very good response.
“I think now it’s almost 95% of NHS workers that have had at least one jab. The latest numbers I have is that around 77,000 that have not. That is improving every day. Not all 77,000 are in scope because to be in scope is if it’s a patient-facing role, but the majority of those people would be in scope.
“I think it’s also reasonable to assume that not everyone ultimately is going to come forward.”
On Tuesday, the UK reported a further 439 Covid deaths - the highest daily toll since last February.
A further 94,326 cases were reported, bringing the total to 16,047,716.
The rise in fatalities marks a significant jump on Monday’s figure of 52 - but also reflects a lag in reporting over the weekend.
During the pandemic, 154,356 Britons have died.
A total of 52,252,579 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by January 24, latest Government figures show.
It comes as Covid travel rules were relaxed in a boost for holidays ahead of half term.
Grant Shapps said fully vaccinated travellers would no longer have to test after 4am on February 11.
They would still however have to fill in a passenger locater form.
The Transport Secretary celebrated the move as “kind of back to the good old days” but he urged travellers to continue to get their boosters.
But he said: “Increasingly countries elsewhere are requiring the booster for you to go there.
“So an important message for people listening to your show, particularly perhaps younger people who maybe think ‘Oh, I haven’t bothered with the booster, I’ve been jabbed but I haven’t bothered with the booster’, get the booster because this summer, from talking to my counterparts around the world in Europe and elsewhere, if you want to travel, say go to Spain on holiday this summer, they are almost certainly going to require that booster jab.”
