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Excerpts from an article in today's DT,
"The Chancellor is said to be concerned that much of the current alarm in Whitehall is based on only one set of modelling."
"writing for the Telegraph the Health Secretary admitted that there is "much we still don't know" about the omicron variant. However, he said the "most important trading decisions" he made as an investment banker was before there was "clear" data - at which point, "it may be too late to react".
His intervention exposes a significant divide in Cabinet, with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the Commons, also said to be opposed to adopting new restrictions in the absence of more data, along with Mr Sunak and Lord Frost.
Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, is said to favour further restrictions to curb the spread of omicron, along with Mr Javid. One minister claimed: "Michael Gove wants to lock everyone up forever."
"Lord Frost's resignation emerged as the Prime Minister was weighing up a "sliding scale" of new Covid-19 restrictions, with Sajid Javid warning that ministers may have to introduce new measures on the basis of "early and patchy" data."

"we generally model what we are asked to model", tweet by Sage chairman Graham medley.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-twitter-conversation-with-the-chairman-of-the-sage-covid-modelling-committee

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-omicron-really-no-less-severe-a-look-at-south-africa-s-data

Pieter Streicher makes the case for cautious optimism in South Africa, an antidote to the toxic sage narrative. Also worth noting is an extract from an article in the FT 'UK hospitals brace for Omicron wave'
"Of the 169 additional Covid-positive patients in hospital, 111 of them were not being treated primarily for Covid, and only incidentally tested positive after admission for other conditions, suggesting the figures could overstate the level of additional pressure on the NHS. A similar trend was observed in a hospital in the South African city of Tshwane, the epicentre of the Omicron outbreak there"

https://unherd.com/thepost/deep-data-dive-is-omicron-the-end-of-the-pandemic/

https://www.ft.com/content/c14173c9-1ab7-4386-aeae-70cdac666503

Interesting article from the FT, link below.
https://amp-ft-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.ft.com/content/c14173c9-1ab7-4386-aeae-70cdac666503?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16396973101397&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2Fc14173c9-1ab7-4386-aeae-70cdac666503

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloombergquint.com/amp/onweb/omicron-infects-70-times-faster-but-is-less-severe-study-says

Current South Africa covid hospitalisations are less than previous waves.

https://data.spectator.co.uk/category/national

South African doctors are finding people with omicron who present themselves with other ailments. In the majority of cases omicron just produces a headache and fatigue so nobody even knows they have it. Given a choice of infection between delta & omicron I would opt for the latter.
https://amp-ft-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.ft.com/content/0ee745ce-ac55-46a9-9766-0b419821a79d?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16392186852619&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F0ee745ce-ac55-46a9-9766-0b419821a79d

South Africa medics, WHO, CDC & EMA all reporting omicron cases thus far to be mild (albeit more transmissible).

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that cases of omicron so far appear to be "mostly mild", but cautioned it was still investigating whether the variant could cause severe disease.
"Cases appear to be mostly mild, however we need to gather more evidence to determine whether the spectrum of disease severity caused by omicron is different [to] that of all the variants that have been circulating so far," said Marco Cavaleri, EMA's head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy.

Excerpt below from the Daily Telegraph.
"England could see the end of international travel restrictions again almost as quickly as they were reinstated, the Health Secretary has suggested.
Speaking at the House of Commons last night, in response to a question from Birmingham MP Tahir Ali about a potential red list expansion, Sajid Javid said: "Very soon, in the days and weeks that lie ahead, if, as I think is likely, we see many more infections and this variant [omincron] becomes the dominant variant, there will be less need to have any kind of travel restrictions at all."
In response, Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, today commented: "The Health Secretary understands well that travel restrictions are utterly futile when we have community transmission and that’s why we’re pushing hard for these latest, emergency restrictions to be rolled back at the December 20 review."

Answered my own question. UK pre-departure tests as well as post-arrival tests. FFS.

Thanks for the update/link. Do you know if the current UK requirement for a day 2 PCR test will be in place following this policy change?

Well I have bought a few more today on the basis that it is looking to be a storm in a tea cup & the media is stirring this with a large spoon. Also placed a bet on Ron De Santis (gov of florida) for 2024 POTUS, Boris could do well taking a lead from him atm. DYOR. LTH. GLA.

UK gov should review the euthanasia laws, but that's another can of worms. Read some anecdotes from medics referring to pneumonia as the 'old man's friend'. I guess in some cases covid 19 could be seen in this light as well. There comes a point when nature should be left to take its course.

Israel bans non-citizen international travelers for two weeks.
Spain have changed entry rules from Dec 1, British tourists (12yo & above) will be admitted to Spain from next month only if they can show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-27-2021/

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spain-tightens-covid-19-restrictions-british-tourists-2021-11-27/

FFS, getting ridiculous again.

UPDATE - The UK has been added to Switzerland’s risk country list.

When boarding a plane and entering Switzerland, all persons travelling from the UK must present a negative COVID-19 test and quarantine for 10 days.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SwissEmbassyUK

SmithyS2019, 'Do you honestly think we can go on without everyone catching it?' Nope, just want a fighting chance when we do.

SmithyS2019, absolutely agree that Delta became prevalent and spread because in immunological terms it was a better variant than the others. Delta's prevalence in the UK was also hastened because of number of initial carriers who transmitted it into the communities.

SmithyS2019. Totally agree that it will not prevent the new variant from entering the UK population. I think the UK gov are anxious to put measures in place to minimise the initial spread so that it does not get out of control like the delta variant. Safe than sorry approach, they are after all in charge.