The latest Covid rules are a welcome step – but Boris Johnson shouldn’t hesitate to go further if needed

The new restrictions brought in to curb the spread of the omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus are both necessary and welcome.

The further, quite modest curbs, on people’s freedom to go about their daily lives – including having to wear masks in shops and on public transport in England – will be resented by some. But given how little is known for now about the severity of the new variant and the speed at which it can spread, the new measures appear an appropriate response to the potential risks. At least the government appears to have learnt – at least somewhat – from its previous failure to act swiftly when confronted by a new threat.

There may be a case for stricter curbs in the future. The two most obvious measures would be encouraging people to work from home and reintroducing social distancing. Although Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has rejected these at this stage. Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, is right to be clear about compliance, warning that his “greatest worry” is that people may not accept new restrictions on their activities. Given the difficulty governments in the UK and elsewhere have had in getting everyone to accept restrictions, his concerns are understandable and real.

There is an immediate issue about the Christmas holiday period. Mr Javid said that people should “continue with their plans as normal for Christmas”. We should all hope he is right. Last year, the lack of swift action before the festive season helped plunge the country not only into new restrictions, but also sadly into a new toll of additional deaths.

The experience of last winter should make the government heed other lessons. The speedy vaccine rollout helped reduce infections, hospital admissions and mortality, but since last spring the UK has fallen behind many European countries in the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated. There has been an effective rollout of booster shots and that has helped contain the number of deaths through the autumn so far. But the harsh truth remains that the country is still experiencing excess deaths, deaths over and above the level of the previous five years. The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that mortality in England and Wales was running some 17 per cent above that five-year average.

What is clear is that the NHS has to be supported so that it can deal with Covid-19 and other health concerns; the damage that the pandemic has imposed on the nation’s health goes far beyond the immediate toll of the pandemic. Making people wear masks when they go into a supermarket is a small inconvenience when set against this wider damage.

For these reasons the government deserves support in its new restrictions. Its policies also require scrutiny. If it becomes apparent that further restrictive measures are required it should not hesitate to impose them. Meanwhile, the government must use every tool it has available to increase both the take-up of the vaccines in the UK and to make available any spare vaccines to the rest of the world.