matthew taylor is the chief executive of the nhs confederation, a membership body for organisations thattime this morning. spell out why the decision was made to put the nhs on this level four footing, national incident, the highest level of emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister — emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister has _ emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister has said, _ emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister has said, we _ emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister has said, we are - emergency preparedness. well, as the prime minister has said, we are now. prime minister has said, we are now involved in a race. omicron is clearly a strain which spreads very quickly, we don't yet know about the severity, it does look as though throwing jabs is an awful lot better than two, and we need to do absolutely everything we can to reduce the spread whilst we expand the booster programme. and if we don't do that, the danger is that we will have an increase in the numbers of people requiring hospital care at a time which could not be

thank you for an outcome | ahead of the nhs confederation, thank you.0 is the figure, the daily figure there in france and latest 24 hour period and by far the highest number since the start of the pandemic. so the situation in france, let's take a look at other european countries. and there have been demonstrations in eastern germany against new coronavirus restrictions. they include a limit on private gatherings to ten vaccinated people and the closure of nightclubs. students of all ages will have to wear masks in school, and sports competitions will be held behind closed doors. unvaccinated people are already banned from much of public life, and only two people are allowed to meet in private. us health authorities have halved the recommended isolation period for people who test positive for covid, but don't exhibit symptoms. they've previously warned of a half a million cases a day in the coming weeks as the omicron variant takes hold. that isolation time goes from ten to five days. officials insist this is being guided by the science. so, why is thi

let's get the thoughts on all of that of matthew taylor, chief executive of nhs confederation, the membershipwhole health care system in england, wales and northern ireland. we need to be cautious about the data. we know, for example, the infection rate massively underestimates what's actually going on in the communities. that's reallyjust the rate of people who've had a test and reported that test result. sadly, i think the death figure also reflects the fact that we've been in this christmas period. what we do know is the hospitalisation rate is going up. now, it seems to be that the people with covid in hospitals may not be suffering on the level of acuity that we've seen in the past, less need to use intensive care. but do remember that if you have covid in hospital, you still are subject to infection controls, so that's still a demand on health service leaders, on doctors and nurses, to make sure that those patients are not infecting other people. with me is our uk political correspondentjonathan blake. jonathan, the government seems to come off with responsibility for england only, seem

good to talk to you, layla, director of policy at the nhs confederation. are going to be. that is a perfect point, and the idea is that they are community pharmacists, they are in local towns. this one in midhurst in west sussex. people know the staff, people know the pharmacy, they may wear may well have come for the flu jab every year. diana is one of the people who welcomes you in the pharmacy. good morning. a chap asked whether he could have his booster but he can't because he is supposed to wait for an appointment, what do you say? i to wait for an appointment, what do ou sa ? ., ., ., to wait for an appointment, what do ousa? ., ., you say? i invited him to go to 119 orthe you say? i invited him to go to 119 or the nhs _ you say? i invited him to go to 119 or the nhs website _ you say? i invited him to go to 119 or the nhs website to _ you say? i invited him to go to 119 or the nhs website to make - you say? i invited him to go to 119 or the nhs website to make an i or the nhs website to make an appointment. and explained how we load appointments reg

matthew taylor, chief executive of the nhs confederation, said it is now a battle against time to avoidnary findings from a large—scale study in south africa suggest two recent doses of the pfizerjab could provide 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation from the omicron variant. )the study looked at more than 200,000 positive covid test results in a three—week period — of which almost 80,000 were suspected but not confirmed to be omicron cases. the initial results, released by a large private health insurance company, also showed that two doses provided 33 percent protection against infection. peter openshaw is an immunologist at imperial college london and a member of the uk vaccine network. he gave us his reaction to the findings. i think this is really interesting report. we have to regard it as preliminary. we have not seen draft manuscript, this isjust a news report. it fits with what we have assumed, which is the rather disappointing results from the laboratory testing of antibody levels have not been completely reflected by the real—world protection seen against hospitalis

the nhs confederation say that some vaccination sites were only a third full, despite cases continuingse. it comes as the government claims to have met its target of offering every eligible adult in england a boosterjab by today. victims of ghislaine maxwell have been speaking of their relief at the guilty verdicts in her sex trafficking trial in new york. she now faces a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted for grooming underage girls to be abused by the disgraced financier, jeffrey epstein. her family are backing an appeal against her conviction. simonjones has this report. described in court as partners in crime, running a pyramid scheme of abuse, the british former socialite ghislaine maxwell would groom underage girls for american financier jeffrey epstein. he killed himself injail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. she could spend the rest of her life behind bars, to the relief of the victims. we have a lot of work to do in this country in terms of holding people accountable, and educating about things like grooming. i didn't know when i was 16. i had no id