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Boris Johnson must outline a Covid exit strategy and show how the UK can “live with this virus” in the long term, according to Tory MPs.
The Prime Minister faced a series of requests from his own backbenchers on when restrictions will be dropped, such as working from home guidance, and for assurances that certain sectors will be exempt from any future curbs.
Mr Johnson insisted face masks in schools will “not last a day more” than needed and noted there are no restrictions on weddings and funerals at the moment, telling MPs: “That’s certainly the way we wish to keep it.”
He also gave assurances that “something closer to normality”, with fewer Covid restrictions, could begin by the end of January.
Mr Johnson reiterated the existing Plan B measures expire on January 26, telling MPs: “By then we hope to have greatly increased the already extraordinarily high number of people in this country who have not only been vaccinated, but who have been boosted.”
He added: “As Omicron blows through and it is is very much my hope and belief that it will, I do believe we will get back to something much closer to normality.
“That doesn’t meant there won’t be further challenges but I think life will return to something much much closer to normality. It won’t be necessary to have the restrictions that we currently have in place.”
Conservative former prime minister Theresa May commended Mr Johnson for resisting calls for more restrictions before Christmas and for further changes announced on Wednesday.
She added in the Commons: “We will see new variants appear in future and the likelihood is that they will continue to be less serious.
“It is not in the national interest to partially or wholly shut down sectors of our economy every time we see a new variant.”
Mr Johnson said a vaccine that “can deal with any type of Covid mutation” is needed, as well as therapeutics.
Conservative former minister Mark Harper went on to ask the Prime Minister when he will set out a plan “to live with this virus, like normal, forever”.
The MP for Forest of Dean said: “We cannot respond to every new variant in the way we have to this one. We have got to have a plan to live with this virus, like normal, forever.
“When is he going to set that plan out in this House? So that we all know where we stand.”
Mr Johnson reiterated the “measures we have in place expire on January 26” as some Labour MPs could be heard shouting: “And then what? What is the plan?”
The Prime Minister went on: “Whatever the situation may be then and I am confident that it will be much better, whatever the situation may be we will continue with the fundamental, the tools that we have, that is vaccination, therapeutics and testing but it is important that Omicron seems to provide some sort of immunity already against Delta.”
Conservative former health minister Steve Brine pressed Mr Johnson on a “long-term plan for living with Covid in 2022”, as he suggested the current measures are not “sustainable”.
The MP for Winchester said Mr Johnson “deserves real credit” for his recent decisions on Covid, adding: “It is increasingly clear we are a long way from learning to live with Covid but we also have an NHS on a permanent war footing and that’s not sustainable.
“So what is the long-term plan for living with Covid in 2022 and could that include any changes to mandatory isolation, test and trace as for instance we see different isolation dates in the US and Germany to here in the UK?”
Mr Johnson said the Government will continue to “keep isolation timings under review” as it does not want to “release people back into society so soon”.
He added: “As I said in my earlier answers, I do think we have a good chance of getting through this difficult wave and getting back to something like normality as fast as possible.
“It is important that Omicron seems to provide some sort of immunity for instance against Delta, that may be a positive augury for the future.”
Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) said Lincolnshire MPs had been told by NHS officials that “only two” intensive care beds in the county were taken by people “because of or with Covid”.
He added: “Although there were large numbers of staff absences, a quarter of them were accounted by staff being absent because they were isolating.
“So the suspicion is the NHS is not being brought to its knees by Covid but by these rules that require people to isolate for so long. So what is the road map for shortening the period of isolation?”
Mr Johnson, in his reply, said: “Absences, although are high, are not as high as it has been at some other points in this pandemic – that’s no cause for complacency.
“What we will do is keep the period of isolation under constant review and if we think we can bring it down without increasing infection then of course we will.”