Londoners back to the commute as work from home guidance dropped
Photographs show that many workers were back at the office this morning for the first commute since guidance on working from home was officially dropped.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson announced that he was ending new rules brought in to deal with the new Omicron variant.
He told MPs in the Commons that the government advice to work from home if possible would end immediately.
This morning, Paddington Station was busier than it has been in recent weeks as more people took the train into central London, ready to then get on the tube to their workplace.
Photos of tube carriages this morning showed that they weren’t completely full, with some seats available.
But people were packed onto escalators on some stations, while some services had only standing room.
Traffic also built up on the roads, with photos of the A102M Blackwall Tunnel approach in Greenwich looking clogged during rush hour.
The prime minister also said yesterday that rules on pupils wearing face masks in classrooms would be scrapped from today, while the requirement to wear a mask on public transport and in shops will end from next Thursday (although they will still be needed on the tube, as this is decided by Sadiq Khan).
In addition, the Tory leader said he wants to end the legal requirement for people to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid as soon as March 24, or earlier.
Minutes earlier, he had faced a bruising session of PMQs with one of his own MPs telling him ‘In the name of God, go’.
He faces public outrage over parties held in Downing Street alleged to have broken lockdown rules.
Mr Johnson was accused of trying to appease his own MPs and distract the public with the timing of the coronavirus rule changes.
He warned ‘the pandemic is not over’, saying there are still over 16,000 people in hospital in England alone.
Omicron is ‘not a mild disease for everyone’, including the unvaccinated, and people still need to take precautions, he said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would support the relaxation of Plan B ‘as long as science says that it is safe’.
He has demanded Boris Johnson to release the scientific evidence behind his decision to reassure people that ‘he’s acting to protect their health, not just his job’.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) council, said scrapping Plan B measures so quickly ‘risks creating a false sense of security’ with the NHS still under crippling pressure.
‘This decision clearly is not guided by the data,’ he said.
‘When Plan B was introduced in December, there were 7,373 patients in hospital in the UK. The latest data this week shows there are 18,9791.’
Dr Nagpaul warned that ending mandates on mask-wearing would ‘inevitably increase transmission’ and place the most vulnerable at a higher risk.
And Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation representing health bodies, said now ‘is not the time for complacency about this virus’.
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