So, just as I’m coming round to the arguments above, we have a U-turn from HM Gov. I don’t imagine this will be a long live thing though. The FT, quoting a behind closed doors briefing from China’s CDC, wrote an estimated 50% of Beijing had it, and that was a few days back. Given Omicron is swift, surely the China outbreak should fizzle out fairly quickly?

May be worth starting a new thread on this? This thread is really just about domestic restrictions rather than those relating to travel. There was the old thread which did relate to international travel, but possibly best to start something new rather than resurrect an already very long thread.

edit: done https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/2105998-requirements-passengers-china-uk-jan-2023-a.html

It's back. And some encouraging figures for cases - there were signs of this before Christmas. Weekly data:

England cases 7,350 (6,191 last Monday) - down 15.4% week on week
England deaths up 0.6% week on week
Patients admitted in England 916 (988 on the 26th)
Patients in hospital in England 9,332 (9,459 on the 28th)
Patients in ventilation beds 212 (209 on the 28th)
Autumn booster total by 4th January: 14,949,375/64.1% of those aged 50+

On the 11th of December BA.5 accounted for 9.8% of cases, BQ.1 61.7%, BA2.75 8% BA.2 0.6% and others 6.9%.

" LHR-HND for those who haven't memorised BA's entire Schedule!" :D

Here is the ONS survey data released today. It shows high figures for all nations which hopefully covers the peak of the current wave. In the week ending 22-28 December 2022:

One in 20 people in England had Covid (last week one in 45)
One in 18 in Wales had Covid (last week one in 55)
One in 16 in Northern Ireland had Covid (last week one in 50)
One in 25 in Scotland had Covid (last week one in 40)

I thought the government had put an end to these regular stats?

It does get a bit confusing! They have ended some modelling recently. As for the current stats, I do not know how long they will be continued for. The China situation could extend their life. It would be hypocritical criticising China for not providing data if we do not do that.

It was the R rate (Reproduction Number or sometimes Index) that was the high profile casualty here. This indicated whether the trend in viral reproduction was rising (above 1) or falling. It really wasn't that useful in recent months and I'm not sure it was ever that useful.

It would, but hypocrisy hasn't always stopped governments from doing/not doing stuff.

Running late, but it was worth the wait. The fall in numbers continues across the board. Weekly data:

England cases 2,811 4,602 last Monday) - down 25.8% week on week
England deaths down 16.5% week on week
Patients admitted in England 737 (916 on the 2nd)
Patients in hospital in England 7,743 (9,332 on the 4th)
Patients in ventilation beds 182 (212 on the 4th)
Autumn booster total by 11th January: 15,016,624/64.4% of those aged 50+

On the 18th of December BA.5 accounted for 9.8% of cases, BQ.1 58.1%, BA2.75 7.3% BA.2 0.7%, CH.1.1.1 16.6% and others 7.5%.

Today's weekly data from the ONS survey. In the week ending 31 December 2022 to 3rd January:

One in 25 people in England had Covid (last week one in 20)
One in 19 in Wales had Covid (last week one in 18)
One in 14 in Northern Ireland had Covid (last week one in 16)
One in 25 in Scotland had Covid (last week one in 25)

Further improvement this week. Weekly data:

England cases 2,022 (3,070 last Monday) - down 44.9% week on week
England deaths down 23.1% week on week
Patients admitted in England 599 (737 on the 9th)
Patients in hospital in England 6,299 (7,743 on the 11th)
Patients in ventilation beds 146 (182 on the 11th)
Autumn booster total by 11th January: 15,051,813/64.6% of those aged 50+

On the 25th of December BA.5 accounted for 7.7% of cases, BQ.1 52.5%, BA2.75 7.7% BA.2 1.1%, CH.1.1.1 21.4% and others 9.4%.

Today's weekly data from the ONS survey. In the week ending 10 January 2023:

One in 40 people in England had Covid (last week one in 25)
One in 25 in Wales had Covid (last week one in 19)
One in 25 in Northern Ireland had Covid (last week one in 14)
One in 30 in Scotland had Covid (last week one in 25)

I just don't think that anyone I speak to now, and that's across a very broad spectrum of the community, really see covid as a thing at the moment. There's many other things that have bumped it down the agenda, maybe as far as AOB.

An interesting take (wah shield up as it is the Telegraph):

Is this the true, devastating cost of lockdown? Up to 100 times more may have been spent on preventing each Covid death than on preventing each non-Covid death