BORIS Johnson has declared “we will get through this wave” as stats revealed a triple whammy of Covid good news.
In early signs the Omicron storm may be subsiding, UK Covid cases fell for the second day in a row.
The number of people being taken to hospital with Covid in London — Omicron ground zero — also tumbled.
And the number of people with the virus and on ventilation in hospitals in England also fell for the second day on the trot.
Hopes are growing inside Downing Street that all Plan B curbs will be ditched by the end of the month and Britain can get back on the road to normality.
All holiday tests are also expected to be axed at the end of the month in a huge boost for sun-thirsty Brits, Trending In The News has learned.
Eager Tory MPs urged Mr Johnson to go even further and become the first world leader to scrap all Covid legal restrictions.
The PM said that Britain has been battered by two years of “wave after wave” of Covid but the NHS has done an “extraordinary job” battling it.
Speaking on a trip to a vaccine centre in Northampton, he struck an upbeat tone saying: “We will get through this wave of Omicron”.
It came as new NHS data showed London Covid hospitalisation rates fell from 4,074 on Wednesday to 4,053 yesterday.
The number of people in England on ventilators because of Covid also fell from 769 to 762.
UK Covid cases fell from 194,747 to 179,756. Again, this is the second day on the trot they have fallen.
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Experts said that while Omicron is infecting lots of Brits, it is not landing so many in hospitals.
Dr Claire Steves, who works on the ZOE Covid Study App, said those who have not had their vaccine or booster are most vulnerable to ending up in wards.
She said: “Omicron seems to be more successful at infecting those who have had previous vaccines but thankfully not necessarily leading to hospitalisation.
“So if you have only had two doses of vaccine so far and are eligible for a third dose, please do book it now.”
Tory MPs urged Mr Johnson to seize the initiative and set out a new freedom day when all legal Covid curbs will fall — including the self-isolation laws.
Instead we should learn to live with coronavirus like we do with flu and be given guidance, not threatened with arrest, they said.
One newbie Tory MP told The Daily Telegraph the PM “could be the first Western leader to lift restrictions.”
Meanwhile, Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, said: “We need a ‘learn to live with it day’.”
He added: “We are in year three of this coronavirus — we have had 2020 and 2021 and we are still talking about the NHS being on a ‘war footing’. It is not sustainable and the public are moving in our direction on this.
“We are going to have to say — perhaps on January 26 when the current Plan B expires — we are going to treat Covid like flu; if you catch it and have symptoms we recommend you stay at home. But all the legal restrictions disappear.”
In a massive hint he is preparing to drop Plan B at the end of the month, the PM told MPs on Wednesday that he reckons “life will return to something much, much closer to normality” soon.
But Downing Street insiders said it is far too early to talk about a new freedom day when all legal restrictions end.
