'Plan A is the right plan' insists Sajid Javid with cases 'set to plummet'

25 October 2021, 09:04 | Updated: 25 October 2021, 09:32

Sajid Javid has said the NHS waiting list “will go up before it goes back down” as he urged people to come forward and get their vaccines.

The Health Secretary told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that plan A "is the right plan" based on the facts and data but urged the public to "play their part in plan A" by taking up the booster jab and continuing with hand hygiene measures.

Asked about Plan A, he said: "What I am interested in are the facts on the ground, and the facts right now are that we don't think that the data requires us to move to Plan B.

"I think that it is right and proper to set out those contingencies measure you know, what Plan B would look like and the criteria we would judge on whether we move or not.

Should we be moving to Plan B, Health Secretary?

"But right here and now for where we are, I think plan A is the right plan, but again I couldn't appeal more strongly to people to play their part in plan A and at the top of the list, as I say, is the vaccines."

It comes after reports claim coronavirus cases could rapidly drop off next month even if the Government does not implement its Plan B back-up measures.

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According to the Telegraph, the Government has been shown modelling that suggests cases will plummet dramatically after an incoming peak.

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Addressing concerns about 5.7 million people on the NHS waiting list, the Health Secretary added: "We all know that during the pandemic millions of people stayed away from the NHS. They did it because they were asked to, they were doing the right thing.

"We estimate there are some seven million people that stayed away and that’s an estimate and I don’t know how many of those are going to come back. But we do know millions stayed away, I want them to come forward, I want them to present themselves, I want them to know the NHS is open for them.

"There are 5.7 million today on the waiting list and it will go up before it goes back down again and that will happen because those millions that stayed away, will come forward because we want them to."

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