Sajid Javid defends the march back to the office despite SAGE warnings
Health secretary Sajid Javid has defended the march back to the office after government scientific advisors warned it could trigger a spike in infections.
Ditching work from home advice could push daily hospital admissions to rise to 7,000 by next month, experts advising the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) warned yesterday.
However, the health secretary told Sky News this morning: “Obviously there’s other reports and things, and it is right that experts are looking at what’s happening and trying to come up with their best guess of where things might go based on certain assumptions.
“My job as health secretary, and other ministers, is to take all of that together and make the best decision that we can.”
Yesterday afternoon the health secretary outline the government’s Covid-19 winter plan which involved a ‘Plan A’ – a series of pharmaceutical interventions, with the objective of avoiding “unsustainable pressure” on the NHS.
And a Plan B – which includes mandatory masks in certain settings, the possible imposition of vaccine passports and even a return to working from home orders.
“We have to listen to them but eventually make what we think is the right decision. There is no risk-free decision but I think what we have announced in terms of this plan, is well thought through,” Javid added.
“It is the act of a responsible government to set out this is our plan, this is how we are going to protect the gains, but just in case things are not quite as we want them to be we have got to have another plan and get that ready too.”