Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sticking to his “Plan B” course of keeping the UK economy open.

There is a "good chance of getting through the Omicron wave without the need for further restrictions and certainly without a lockdown," said Johnson on Tuesday evening.

The cabinet stood behind his course on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and others urge that new restrictions not stall the economic recovery.

Philip Plickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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There was applause from the English economy, especially from the catering industry.

"We very much welcome the Prime Minister's decision," said Kate Nicholls, head of UK Hospitality, the UK Hospitality Association.

It is an "appropriate, balanced approach" that takes into account both health protection and the economic fundamentals.

The prime minister also receives support from the press.

The Times wrote in its editorial that there are good reasons to hope that Johnson's bet will work.

The vaccination campaign has lost a lot of momentum since Christmas

In mid-December, Johnson - against considerable opposition from up to a hundred MPs from his own party - enforced “Plan B” with mask compulsory in retail and public transport as well as vaccination certificates at major events with more than 500 participants. However, he has since rejected further measures, although the new Corona wave with Omikron has piled higher and higher since Christmas and New Year. In Scotland, Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued stricter rules before New Year's Eve.

On Tuesday, 219,000 positive tests were reported across the kingdom, only surpassed in Europe by France with more than 330,000 positive tests on Wednesday. The ONS statistics office estimates that 4 percent of the population are currently infected. Nonetheless, the government can point out that the curve of hospital admissions has not yet risen steeply and the number of deaths has remained moderate so far. In London, the steep wave of contagion now seems to have reached a plateau. The well-known epidemiologist Neil Ferguson from Imperial College, who had caused a sensation in December with forecasts of up to 5,000 deaths per day, was now "cautiously optimistic" that the wave could have broken.

Prime Minister Johnson continues to rely on the booster vaccination campaign. It was very successful by Christmas, and the number of people vaccinated three times had risen to over 34 million citizens - around 60 percent of those over 12 years of age. However, the vaccination campaign has lost a lot of momentum since the holidays. Johnson urged "the greatest possible caution". Opposition leader Keir Starmer had to withdraw on Wednesday after another positive corona test.

The shortage of staff caused by hundreds of thousands of Covid absences is causing major problems for the NHS health service, the economy and schools. Currently, around one million people are in "self-isolation" because of positive tests, said the Minister responsible for care, Gillian Keegan. In the hospitals of the NHS, around 110,000 employees are absent after corona tests, a tenth of all workers in the hospitals are missing. The shortage of personnel is so great that some NHS trusts in the north of England advise emergency patients, for example after a suspected heart attack, to call a taxi to drive to the emergency room rather than wait for the ambulance. Many nursing homes also hardly know how to cope with the high level of sick leave. Trains are also canceled because there are no staff after positive corona tests.6000 train drivers and conductors are in quarantine.

About 40 percent of those who tested positive have no symptoms at all. According to media reports, NHS bosses are working on new guidelines to shorten the duration of self-isolation. There is an urgent demand from business to reduce the quarantine requirement from seven to five days. The Icelandic supermarket chain reported that 1,700 of its employees - around 6 percent of the workforce - are currently in quarantine. "The government has to change the rules," said Iceland boss Richard Walker.

The hope that the Omikron variant will trigger significantly milder disease processes and will therefore be more manageable has meanwhile led to sharp price jumps for airline shares.

The course of the British Airways parent company IAG rose by more than 11 percent since the beginning of the year, and the low-cost airline Easyjet rose by 9 percent, including 3 percent plus on Wednesday.

European and American airlines and travel agents such as Tui also recorded price gains.

Britain's Transport Minister Grant Shapps wants to relax the rules for corona tests before flights.