by Our Parliamentary Reporter @TrinderMatt

BRITAIN is “stumbling into a winter crisis” amid rising Covid-19 cases, NHS chiefs warned today, as they urged Tory ministers to reinstate some coronavirus restrictions. 

The NHS Confederation, which represents health services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said a back-up strategy — “Plan B” — which includes mandatory face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces, should be implemented.

New daily virus cases have topped 40,000 for more than a week, with 49,139 new infections and another 179 deaths reported today, while the number of patients in hospital on Monday had risen by 10 per cent on the previous seven days, to 7,749.

Under the government’s current plans for managing coronavirus this winter, booster jabs are being offered to about 30 million people, a single dose of a vaccine is available for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds and people are advised to wear face coverings in crowded places.

If these measures are not enough to prevent “unsustainable pressure” on the NHS, then steps like making face coverings mandatory in some settings, asking people to work from home and introducing vaccine passports could be considered as part of a Plan B.

NHS Confederation head Matthew Taylor urged ministers to act now to help save hospitals. 

“The health service is right at the edge,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The pressures will only grow worse and the nation has to make a decision to take pre-emptive action, he said, asking: “Or do we stumble into a crisis once again, despite the evidence?”

The University of Bristol’s Professor Adam Finn, one of the members of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, echoed those calls, telling BBC Breakfast that “relying on the vaccine programme to take care of the problem is not going to be a solution, I’m afraid.”

In response to the pleas, former Labour chairman Ian Lavery MP tweeted: “@BorisJohnson might want you to believe he’s conquered this virus … he hasn’t. Please stay safe.”

Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton said: “The government can no longer pretend that Covid-19 is not a risk and needs to take immediate action to protect key workers and passengers.

“Reintroducing mask wearing is a sensible measure the government could and should take that does not damage the economy in any way.”

Unison deputy head of health Helga Pile said: “The ​government is failing to control the number of new Covid cases. New infections in Europe are a fraction of the numbers in the UK.

“Countries keeping a lid on the virus have​stuck with social distancing and mask wearing, rather than declaring a free-for-all.

“The NHS will be unable to cope with the extra demand unless ministers take action now to avoid patients suffering and staff being left exhausted.”

The GMB union reiterated calls for employers to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 transmission via the implementation of social distancing, the provision of face coverings, and high standards of ventilation.

In a statement today Downing Street said there are no plans to activate NHS contingency measures or to implement another lockdown in England, adding: “We are sticking to the autumn and winter plan we have set out.”

During a televised press conference, Health Secretary Sajid Javid admitted that cases could yet rise to 100,000 per day, and that daily hospital admissions are already approaching 1,000.

He reiterated that the government will not be implementing the Plan B strategy “at this point," however, but urged those eligible to come forward for booster jabs, confirming that four million have been given so far.

Amid fears of waning immunity, about 4.8 million people who had their second dose more than six months ago have not yet received the top-up — a gap that is growing each week.

“The situation is concerning,” Royal College of GPs head Professor Martin Marshall told BBC Radio 4’s World at One. “The booster vaccination is incredibly important in order to protect individual patients and the NHS during a winter that we expect to be really difficult.”

On Tuesday, Northern Ireland announced its own plan for the winter months, which will see face coverings remain a legal requirement in crowded indoor spaces.

Scotland has set out a winter vaccination strategy and already has measures in place, such as so-called Covid passports when entering nightclubs and face masks in schools.

But in Wales, Labour’s First Minister Mark Drakeford has said that, aside from the spread of any vaccine-resistant coronavirus strains, the country could expect a “normal Christmas” this year.