Masks made mandatory in shops and public transport to tackle Omicron
It's part of a range of measures that will be reviewed in three weeks time
Mask wearing in shops and on public transport have been made mandatory again to help tackle the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
It comes after cases of the new strain, that's been marked as concerning by scientists, have been recorded across the UK.
It's part of a range of measures that will be reviewed in three weeks time.
All travellers returning to the UK must also take a PCR test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
All contacts of suspected Omicron cases must self-isolate, regardless of their age or vaccination status.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is also now advising that all adults aged 18 to 39 should be offered a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, in order of descending age groups, to increase their level of protection.
Those aged 40 and over are already eligible for a booster vaccine.
The JCVI said booster doses should be given no sooner than three months after people have had their second dose of an original vaccine – shaving three months off the current six-month wait.
In further advice, young people aged 12 to 15 should be offered a second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, no sooner than 12 weeks after their first dose.
Dr Hamid Mahgoub is a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control at Public Health East of England.
He says vaccinations are ultimately the best defence we have: "Everybody should being getting at least two doses of the vaccine and a third if they need one, because this will help bolster our defences against any form of the virus.
"We are acting to get scientific information available as soon as possible it inform the correct balance of intervention that we should be taking. This will include analysing live samples of the new variant to investigate properties such as its response to current vaccines."
This man who has an underlying health condition told us the re-introduction of masks is well overdue: "I personally think that re-introducing them should have been brought in way earlier. I've not, not worn a face mask for the last two years. To think that it's only just now being re-introduced is a bit silly. The amount of people you see walking around without a mask real concerns me because they are potentially exposing themselves to the virus every day."
He went on to say that those with vulnerable family members or friends should have already been wearing masks in these settings: "I think it's quite selfish of some people not to wear them around really ill family members. I completely understand that people forget them now and again. But I think it's really unsafe and irresponsible for those who are vulnerable or have ill family members to continuously not wear them."
He concluded by saying that mask-wearing should be normalised: "I feel like it should have been kept in place. I think we should follow South Korea's lead and make mask-wearing a normal thing. Coronavirus isn't going to go away any time soon neither are half of the other illnesses. So wearing a face-mask more often than not would be beneficial for protecting ourselves and those around us."