Omi days
ONCE it was announced that a new, highly transmissible variant of Covid had been discovered, there was a grim inevitability it would soon turn up in the UK.
So it has proved — with at least 75 probable cases of the Omicron strain identified already, and more than 150 possible cases.
That’s despite the Government acting swiftly to contain it, in stark contrast to the dither that saw the Indian variant take hold here last winter.
The measures imposed by Health Secretary Sajid Javid so far — from mandatory masks on public transport and shops, to testing of travellers from overseas — are a sensible and proportionate response that will buy scientists time to find out more about the latest mutations.
There is much that’s still unclear, with early experiences in South Africa suggesting that for all Omicron’s easy transmissibility, it may be a milder strain of Covid.
So the last thing we should do is panic and rush to close down the economy again, demand everyone works from home, or start making plans to cancel Christmas.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and the likes of Susan Michie, a lockdown-loving Communist Party member of the Government’s Sage advisory group, are of course screaming for tougher curbs.
But, if they had their way, we’d never have emerged from lockdown in the first place.
So we welcome Saj’s resolve that his own latest measures should only be temporary.
He must stick to this vow.
With luck, we could yet be back to business as normal before long.
Wrap it up
THERE is something you can do to make it more likely that the Omicron variant is a bump in the road, rather than a detour.
Today we launch a fresh recruitment drive for Jabs Army volunteers, and we know our fabulous readers will yet again rise to the occasion.
Even if you can’t enlist, you can play your part by getting your booster jab as soon as you are eligible.
Omicron or no Omicron, let’s put Covid back in its box for Christmas.
Unwarranted
WE are sure the good folk of Sussex will sleep easier tonight knowing their cops now have gender-neutral warrant cards.
Such pandering might seem harmless, but it adds an extra hurdle to assigning female officers where they are needed.
Instead of appeasing a woke minority who will now just move on to the next imagined grievance, Sussex Police chiefs ought to focus on their real job.
They had the country’s second-highest stalking rates last year, while knife crime has nearly trebled in seven years.
Don’t have nightmares.
