‘We will not be cut off from Europe’
MORE than half-a-million people in the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Boris Johnson said, as he moved to soothe concerns the country risked being effectively cut off from parts of Europe and beyond following the discovery of a new strain of coronavirus.
The Prime Minister said the Government took “prompt and decisive” action when the mutant variant was discovered in the UK on Friday, resulting in the creation of strict Tier 4 restrictions that have taken a scythe to Christmas plans for millions of families.
He said more than half-a-million people in the UK have now received their first dose of the two-part vaccinate since British grandmother Margaret Keenan became the first patient in the world on December 8 to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 jab following its clinical approval.
It came as the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats advisory group (NervTag) told a Science Media Centre briefing on the new mutant variant that cases outside of Tier 4 in London and the south east of England “are increasing at similar rates” to those in affected areas, and that it had a “transmission advantage” over other strains of the virus.
However, World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was “no evidence” the new strain was “more likely to cause severe disease or mortality”.
Elsewhere, regional public health directors in Manchester and the West Midlands urged anyone who travelled from a Tier 4 area or Wales to self-isolate upon their arrival and “assume” they have the new Covid-19 variant.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference yesterday following crunch talks involving members of the Cobra emergency committee to prevent the UK being cut off from the continent in the days before Christmas, Mr Johnson said discussions were taking place to “unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible”.
He said: “It was an excellent conversation with the French President (Emmanuel Macron), he stressed he was keen, I would say, to sort it out in the next few hours if we can.
“Our teams will be working on it flat out – if we can get a result then that would be great, but we will do it as fast as we can.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps urged people not to travel to Kent amid the closure of the French border.
He told the press conference: “Please don’t travel to Kent.
“Most people should be staying at home, everybody in Tier 4 must stay at home and in Tier 3 stay very local.”
Referring to the vaccine, Mr Johnson said: “I can today announce that over half a million people, more than 500,000 people in the UK, have now received their first dose.”