BRITAIN’S streets could soon be smothered with rubbish as bin collectors struggle with staff shortages due to Covid.
Councils in Manchester, Essex, Somerset and Buckinghamshire have scaled back and in some cases cancelled bin collections as staff absences have risen by a quarter.
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Chelmsford council said 23 members of staff were absent and cancelled three days’ worth of rubbish collecting.
While Lincolnshire United Hospitals declared a critical incident because of “extreme and unprecedented” staff shortages.
A string of hugely positive studies show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.
Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.
The Sun’s Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.
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It comes as the Government is set to announce plans to prioritise public sector workers for lateral flow tests as they expect 25 per cent to be absent from work.
The Local Government Association said bin collectors should also be prioritised for tests.
Thousands of working Brits are struggling to get their hands on the DIY lateral flow kits, which have sold out in pharmacies and are regularly unavailable online.
Soaring cases of the Omicron variant have sparked a shortage across Britain, where another 137,583 Covid cases were recorded yesterday along with 73 deaths.
It emerged yesterday that British manufacturers of rapid tests are still awaiting approval – with the majority coming from China.
Meanwhile, education officials are scrambling to ensure every school has enough tests to swab every pupil before the start of term this week.
Ministers are bullish that there is no need to add any more Covid restrictions to fight the new Omicron wave.
No10 is set to review current restrictions this week but are not expected to make any changes.
Health minister Ed Agar said hospitalisations are not crippling the NHS – although he expects them to rise but revealed that only 789 people on ventilators.
He said: “I’m seeing nothing in the data right in front of me in the immediate situation, that suggests a need for further restrictions.”
“We need cool, calm heads. We need to look at the data and we need to do everything possible to avoid any restrictions – restrictions or curbs must be the absolute last resort.”
The minister said Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid are monitoring the data every day.
Current Plan B measures – for Covid passes and masks in some settings – will be reviewed this week but insiders are not expecting anything to change.
Mr Agar said that he did expect to see the number of patients in hospital to increase with cases numbers so high.
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