The health-care system is under strain, but no new measures have been proposed.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the country’s health system will be strained for weeks as a result of the current rise in coronavirus infections, but that no new steps to prevent the spread would be implemented shortly.

Over Christmas and New Year, the highly transmissible omicron form pushed Britain’s daily new caseload rising, with 157,758 infections and 42 fatalities reported for England and Scotland on Monday. Wales and Northern Ireland did not get figures.

During a visit to a vaccination clinic in Aylesbury, 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of London, Johnson said, “I believe we’ve got to acknowledge that the demand on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be enormous in the next couple of weeks, if not more.”

After The Sunday Times revealed that a number of hospitals in Lincolnshire’s eastern county had declared a “serious incident” due to “severe and unprecedented” staff shortages, Johnson spoke out.

“We’re seeing rising staff absenteeism, and that’s coming on top of a very large amount of wider strain,” Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts that administer hospitals across the UK, told the Bazzup.

And Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents 1.5 million health professionals, claimed that much of the health-care system is in “crisis,” aggravated by high demand for services and staff absenteeism.

“Some hospitals are pleading with fatigued employees to forego rest days and leave in order to keep key services running. To try to minimize the transmission of infection, many more hospitals are banning visitors,” he stated.

Johnson’s government removed almost all coronavirus restrictions in July, but last month reversed course and triggered its “Plan B” for England — ordering face coverings be worn in indoor public places, requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter nightclubs and asking people to work from home if they can.

Johnson on Monday urged people to adhere to those rules and get a booster vaccination shot, as the government seeks to shore up staffing shortages.

“So do all the things that I’ve said, make sure we follow a Plan B, get boosted but also help the NHS with their staffing requirements, and we’re looking at what we can do to move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected,” he said.

Johnson, on the other hand, seems to rule out any further tightening of measures in the coming days.

“I believe that the best course of action for the country as a whole is to stay on our current route.” “We’ll keep an eye on everything,” he stated.

“I believe the combination of things we’re doing right now is the proper one.”

Earlier this week, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC that data from London, which has seen rising infection rates in recent weeks, appears to show a “plateauing” of rates, but that “we are seeing leakage into the over-50s in terms of infections,” and that “it’s generally the over-50s who end up with severe infection and hospitalization.”