More schools and businesses will close in the lead up to Christmas as health experts “hit Omicron hard” according to dentist Jason Leitch
Jason Leitch said: “This is how we’ve dealt with each of the variants as they have arisen.
“This is the fourth major variant and, as they become known, you have to really hit them with outbreak management techniques.
“Not whole population techniques, we put a ring of steel around those individual cases and that of course causes more isolation.
“We can’t do that forever, and we changed it for the Delta variant eventually. But we have to do it to try and slow it down.
“That’s why, unfortunately, there will be occasions where a hospitality setting or a school or an office will have to close because of Omicron for a little while until we know more.”
Leitch said closing Todholm Primary School in Paisley was “unfortunate but the right thing to do”
He said: “Omicron is an unknown. We don’t know if it gives you a worse disease or if it somehow escapes the vaccine a little. Therefore, health protection have been much more cautious with it.
“We already know it appears to be somewhat more transmissable – we didn’t know that 10 days ago.
“We know for Delta, 3% of cases end up in hospital. Now, for Omicron, is it six or is it two or is it three? We simply do not know.
“Until we know, we can’t give definitive Omicron advice to the first minister, who then can’t give definitive Omicron advice to the population.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is to update MSPs on the latest developments at Holyrood on Tuesday afternoon.
Unity News Network (UNN) Staff Writer | To find out more details about our staff, please head to the About Us section on our website.
