Israeli doctor believes he caught Omicron Covid variant in London on 23 November

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A triple-vaccinated Israeli doctor has raised fears over the Omicron variant having been in the UK for weeks after saying he believes he caught the strain at a conference in London attended by 1,250 people on November 23.

Elad Maor, 45, travelled to the capital on November 19 and stayed at a hotel in Islington while attending the three-day convention at ExCeL London in Newham, east London, before returning to Israel. 

The father-of-three, who is a cardiologist at Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv, tested positive for the virus four days later, on November 27, and suffered mild symptoms including a sore throat, fever and muscle ache.

He took three PCR tests on November 20, 21 and 24 – all of which came back negative. After returning to work in Israel he later displayed symptoms and took a fourth PCR test which showed a positive result.

Dr Maor, who is now quarantining at home in Israel, appears to be certain that he picked up the variant while attending the conference, saying: ‘I got the Omicron in London, for sure.’

He told The Guardian: ‘That is interesting because that was 10 days ago in London – really, really early.’ 

Dr Maor also believes he infected a 69-year-old fellow worker, who has since tested positive for the Omicron variant after returning from London.

Pointing to a delay between the time of infection and when the PCR turns positive, he added: ‘The only reasonable explanation is that I got infected on the last day of the meeting – maybe at the airport, maybe at the meeting.’

The associate professor of cardiology at Tel Aviv University said he commuted to the conference via the tube and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) over the three-day period. 

His comments come as Dr. Anthony Fauci announces the first detected case of the Omicron variant in the US, saying it was identified by the San Francisco Departments of Public Health in California. 

Fauci said the individual had returned from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive a week later on November 29.

He or she was fully vaccinated, but had not received a booster, and is currently experiencing mild symptoms. 

Meanwhile in the UK, in rules now enshrined in law until March, Boris Johnson said that face coverings must be worn in shops and on public transport to ‘buy us time in the face of this new variant’.

The Prime Minister also pledged to ‘throw everything’ at the booster vaccination campaign and offer jabs to 40million over-18s by January 31 to tackle its spread.

But in the same Downing Street press conference last night Mr Johnson insisted another lockdown is ‘extremely unlikely’, urging people not to cancel their plans and to ‘keep living your life’.

Critics say the Government’s latest coronavirus rules on masks, blanket quarantine for Omicron contacts and gloomy language about the threat of the new variant is actually encouraging a semi-lockdown by stealth despite just 22 cases of the new strain detected so far. 

Deaths, infections and hospitalisations were all down in the UK yesterday while a World Health Organization official claimed today that most Omicron cases are ‘mild’ and there is no evidence the new variant has any impact on vaccine effectiveness against serious illness.

Amid accusations of mixed messages Sajid Javid also encouraged millions of people to be ‘sensible’ and ‘cautious’ about attending Christmas parties and to take a lateral flow test before going to slow the spread of the Omicron variant. There are also ‘no guarantees’ that there won’t be a lockdown this Christmas, the Health Secretary warned.  

The Israeli doctor’s speculation over catching Omicron in the UK on November 23 comes as: 

Most Omicron cases are ‘mild’ and there is no evidence the new variant has any impact on vaccine effectiveness against serious illness, a World Health Organization official claimed today; All UK arrivals should be forced to quarantine for five days and take a pre-departure PCR test even if they are vaccinated, SAGE has advised;Joe Biden is considering tougher entry requirements for travellers going to the US in a move which could include forcing arrivals to quarantine for seven days;European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it is time for the EU ‘to think about’ making Covid vaccines mandatory across the entire bloc;Sajid Javid admitted it will be a ‘huge ask’ to deliver on the Government’s booster drive pledge of offering a jab to every UK adult by the end of January;Labour urged the Government to introduce pre-departure testing for all people before they fly to the UK;  Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said some NHS organisations had asked staff ‘not to mix in big groups’ in the run-up to Christmas;Data published by the Office for National Statistics showed a total of 170,816 deaths have occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.  

And there was more chaos yesterday after UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chief Dr Jenny Harries said people should limit socialising in December. This sparked suspicion among Tory MPs that she was being set up as the fall guy by ministers who are too scared to admit further restrictions are likely.   

Christmas parties are now being axed – costing pubs and clubs billions of pounds – and if the parties are still going ahead attendees are being told by their bosses to take a lateral flow test on the morning of the event and wear masks. Schools cancelled nativity plays and fairs while councils even axed Santa visits for vulnerable children. 

Today Brewin Dolphin, one of the largest British wealth management firms in the UK, told staff in London they can stay away from the office from December 10 until January 7, MailOnline can reveal. Staff should not feel uncomfortable declining invites to events before December 25, bosses also said. 

Google has emailed UK staff urging them to ‘move any planned in-person social gatherings until 2022’ and limiting them to no more than 15 people. Ronan Harris, Vice President and MD for Google UK & Ireland, also told workers that face-to-face business meetings and events must be approved by a company director. 

And despite Government guidance saying otherwise, many UK companies have scrambled to reinstate office restrictions including mask wearing in communal areas such as corridors and lifts. Insurance giant Aviva is introducing daily lateral flow tests for employees. EY is one of a number of big businesses asking staff to wear face coverings when not at their desks.

Virgin Media has said it was reviewing its office measures while Martin Sorrell, chief executive of ad agency S4 Capital, said his firm will be showing ‘even more attention to testing, masks, vaccination, office layout and working from home’.

Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope has claimed the Prime Minister’s regulations are ‘part of a scaremongering propaganda campaign that is really designed to restrict or stop interaction between social animals. They’re designed to suppress freedom of the individual and suppress social contact, and they’re doing that through unreasonable fear-mongering.’

Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, said: ‘I have received several emails from travel companies in my constituency whose potential bookings have dropped off a cliff because of the cost of PCR tests’, adding encouragement back towards working from home will be devastating for businesses relying on office workers. 

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘It would be helpful if the Government provided some clearer guidance. It is unclear what they want people to do’.

Pubs and clubs have reported a slew of last minute cancellations since Mr Johnson’s first TV press conference on Saturday as hospitality businesses lined up to warn the Prime Minister that the chilling effect of Covid restrictions will cost the economy ‘billions’ in the run-up to Christmas. Many big businesses are not holding big parties this year. Those that are will demand a negative covid test result for all attendees. 

All UK arrivals should be forced to quarantine for five days and take a pre-departure PCR test even if they are vaccinated, SAGE has advised.

The expert panel warned the current travel curbs were allowing ‘significant’ numbers of infected people to slip through the cracks.

Currently, fully vaccinated people coming into the UK need to take a PCR test within the first two days of returning to the UK.

There is nothing stopping them taking this as soon as they land and getting a result on the same day, releasing them from isolation in hours.

SAGE scientists said this might not give enough time for the virus to incubate. They also called for ministers to bring in day five and day eight tests.

Only unvaccinated people coming into the UK have to take ‘fit to fly’ tests before getting on a plane back to Britain.

SAGE’s new advice was leaked from minutes of an emergency meeting about the new Omicron variant held on Monday.

More than 30 scientists attended the video conference on November 29, led by chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical adviser Professor Chris Whitty.

They also said Britain should brace for a ‘potentially very significant wave with associated hospitalisations’ this winter if the worst estimates about Omicron turn out to be true.

Boris Johnson tightened travel rules yesterday to require arrivals to self-isolate until they get a negative PCR test result.

But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper today said it was ‘totally unacceptable’ that ministers were failing to heed advice from their own scientists to impose more curbs at the border.

The Government rejected calls for up to eight-day self-isolation for vaccinated arrivals this week, arguing it would have a ‘detrimental’ impact on the travel industry.

Businesses have lined up to warn Boris Johnson that the chilling effect of Covid restrictions will cost the economy ‘billions’ in the run-up to Christmas.

Pubs and restaurants said people were already cancelling Christmas parties even though there is no requirement to wear masks in hospitality venues. Theatres have also started asking visitors to wear masks.

Airline bosses warned that restrictive new testing requirements since the emergence of the latest strain was putting put the industry’s fragile recovery at risk. Bookings have weakened and fears are rising that carriers could see a wave of cancellations.

Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said the uncertainty caused by the mixed messages was damaging business.

‘It is surreal and extremely frustrating to see healthcare advisers publicly telling people not to socialise, giving unnecessary uncertainty to our customers and workforce,’ he said.

He added: ‘At the very moment operating costs are at their highest, we are now faced with another poorly conceived communications strategy from Government which has and will severely impact businesses,’ he said.

‘Christmas bookings and advance ticket sales have already been hit following the announcement of the new Omicron variant.’ Former minister Steve Baker condemned the intervention from Dr Harries, saying: ‘Loneliness shortens lives… and yet we find an official going beyond Government policy to say that we should not have unnecessary socialising.’ Fellow Tory Sir Desmond Swayne said telling people not to socialise would be ‘to the huge detriment of people’s wellbeing and industries struggling to recover from earlier lockdowns.’ 

Tory MPs have blasted the Government after it emerged new rules on self-isolation will be enshrined in law until March, sparking fears the curbs could remain in place far beyond a promised three week review.

A new restriction came into force yesterday which requires people who have been in contact with a case of the Omicron coronavirus variant to self-isolate for 10 days or risk a fine of up to £10,000. 

Boris Johnson has said that rule, along with requirements to wear face masks in shops and on public transport and for returning travellers to take a PCR test on or before day two after arrival, will be reviewed before Christmas. 

But the regulations underpinning the self-isolation rule are not due to expire until March 24, prompting a backlash from anti-lockdown Tories. 

Conservative MPs have expressed concerns that the new rule could cause a fresh ‘pingdemic’ which could devastate the economy and education system. 

But Health Secretary Sajid Javid today dismissed those concerns as he said the current number of Omicron cases is still ‘very low’ with 22 confirmed cases across the UK.   

Mr Johnson rejected the advice of Dr Jenny Harries, pointing out it is not included in formal guidance, as he told people they do not need to cancel Christmas parties or school nativity plays.  

Mr Javid echoed the PM’s position this morning as he said people ‘should continue to behave in the way that they were planning to behave over Christmas’ and ‘I don’t think there is any need to change those plans’.

However, the Health Secretary risked further confusion after he said he would take a Covid test before attending a Christmas party. 

He said that testing before a party is ‘not a formal recommendation in the guidance’ but he would take a test if he was attending such an event as a ‘sensible precaution’. 

It came as Mr Johnson was grilled by Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs over claims that the Prime Minister and his Downing Street staff broke Covid rules by holding two festive gatherings in Number 10 in 2020. 

The Daily Mirror reported that the PM gave a speech at a packed leaving do for a senior aide last November when the country was in the midst of the second lockdown. Members of his Number 10 team apparently then held their own festive party days before Christmas, while London was subject to Tier 3 Covid restrictions.

Mr Johnson did not deny that a party had taken place but said ‘all guidance was followed completely’ as Sir Keir accused the PM of ‘taking the British public for fools’.  

MPs voted yesterday to overwhelmingly support Mr Johnson’s new rule on self-isolation by 431 votes to 36, as 32 Tories rebelled to vote against. 

Tory backbenchers are worried that while the Government has said the restrictions will be reviewed in three weeks, ministers could subsequently act to keep them in place. 

The rule on compulsory face masks will expire on December 20 but the rule on self-isolation will technically be enshrined in law until March 24. 

Former chief whip Mark Harper raised the expiry date issue with Vaccine Minister Maggie Throup yesterday. 

He said: ‘The Government have said that they are going to review these measures after three weeks and she is right—on the face masks, the regulations expire on 20 December—but the self-isolation SI (statutory instrument) has no expiry date, which means it will run all the way until the main statutory instrument expires on 24 March 2022. Why is that?’ 

Ms Throup said Mr Harper had made a ‘very good point’ but insisted ‘we will not continue to have these regulations in place for any longer than is necessary’.   

Mr Harper said: ‘While ministers have been clear that the regulations will be reviewed in three weeks… the regulations are not time limited; they amend another set of regulations that do not have an expiry date until March next year. 

‘Although the minister tells me that they will not be enforced for a day longer than necessary, she must recognise that, given the events of the past few weeks and how ministers handled, among other things, the standards measures, there has been a diminution in trust between backbenchers and ministers.’

Government sources told Politico that the March date is the result of a technical issue relating to how the change was made in legislation and have stressed the important moment is the three-week review. 

The new rule on self-isolation has prompted fears among Tory MPs of a potential return to the ‘pingdemic’ which wreaked havoc across the country earlier this year as thousands of people were told to stay at home.  

Tory MP Steve Brine said: ‘We are not just looking at a pingdemic in our economy and in our businesses; we are looking at a pingdemic that will devastate education again. 

‘After everything that we have learned—everything that I have felt in my own family—are we really, seriously, going to do that to our children again?’ 

Fellow Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said: ‘I am afraid that the proposals mean we are going to fall into a new pingdemic.’    

But Mr Javid today said he is not worried about a potential ‘pingdemic’ because the number of Omicron cases is still ‘very low’. 

He told Sky News: ‘No, no I am not. At this point in time the case numbers are very low. I think throughout the UK we have got 22 confirmed cases at the moment.

‘Now, that will go up, it will certainly go up, but the numbers are low, I hope it sort of stays that way.

‘So, I am not worried about a pingdemic type situation but we have always also said that even before we knew about the variant in our Plan A we have always been clear that as you get into deeper winter, the colder, darker days, the virus likes that, not just this virus, the flu virus, they like that.

‘So as we do that then people should just be careful to try and think can they ventilate a room and just follow the current guidance.’

Dr Harries sparked a Tory backlash and warnings from the hospitality industry yesterday after she said decreasing social contact ‘a little bit’ could help slow the spread of the new variant.   

She said that ‘if we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay’. 

Downing Street subsequently slapped down the advice as it stressed a reduction in socialising is not part of the Government’s response to Omicron. 

Mr Johnson later echoed a similar sentiment at a Number 10 press conference as he said Christmas parties should still go ahead. 

Mr Javid was asked for his opinion on the issue this morning as he told Sky News: ‘I think people should continue to behave in the way that they were planning to behave over Christmas.

‘I don’t think there is any need to change those plans. The only changes that have been made in the last few days are the ones that everyone now knows about.

‘It might effect your international travel plans, so if someone had plans to travel over Christmas then there could be an impact there.

‘There is the need to self-isolate if you come into contact with someone with Omicron.’

The Health Secretary was also asked if people should take a coronavirus test before attending a Christmas party. 

He replied: ‘I would. I would. It is not a formal recommendation in the guidance but if I was going to a party with lots of party and things I would.

‘But I would have done that by the way even before we knew about this variant.

‘Again, the reason I would have done that is because it is getting cold, it is getting darker, we are spending more time indoors, probably more people indoors than before just because of the colder, darker days, so a sensible precaution that everyone can take.’ 

Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people should be ‘sensible’ of they attend a Christmas party. 

He said: ‘If you are invited to a Christmas party, there’s quite a few people there, maybe you want to take an LFT (lateral flow test) test before you go. Go to the party, but just be cautious.’

Asked if he would wear a mask if he was at a party, Mr Javid said: ‘It depends if I am walking around or sitting down. It depends if I’m eating. People just need to make a decision based on the guidance.’

The Cabinet minister defended the Government’s decision to make face coverings compulsory on public transport and in shops in England but not in hospitality settings.

‘The job of government is to listen to expert advice and then make a balanced and proportionate judgment. That’s what we’ve done,’ he said.

‘We’ve acted swiftly. But I think what we’ve said on face coverings and the other measures that we have taken is a balanced and proportionate approach.’ 

The Government has said the new rules on self-isolation, face masks and travel testing which came into effect from 4am yesterday will buy scientists some time to analyse the Omicron variant and to determine if vaccines are effective against it.