Johnson, who is grappling with a rebellion in his party over measures to curb the Omicron spread and an outcry over alleged Downing Street parties during last year’s lockdowns, said people should rush to get booster vaccines to protect “our freedoms and our way of life”.
The novel coronavirus, which was first detected in China in late 2019, has killed 5.3 million people, wiped out trillions of dollars in economic output and turned normal life upside down for people across the world.
Data released on Friday showed that vaccine efficacy against symptomatic infection was substantially reduced against Omicron with just two doses, but a third dose boosted protection up to more than 70 per cent.
Though Javid said there had been no deaths yet confirmed in England and just 10 people were hospitalised in England with the variant, he said Omicron was probably behind about 40 per cent of infections in London.
He said that while symptoms of the variant might be milder, its swift spread meant that unless the government acted then the health service could be overwhelmed.
“Even when a virus is mild, a small percentage of people from a very large number still can equal a high number of hospitalisations,” Javid said.
“Two doses are not enough, but three doses still provide excellent protection against symptomatic infection,” he said.
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