More lockdowns likely, Johnson warns

BritishPrimeMinister LONDON— Boris Johnson warned Sunday that more onerous lockdown restrictions in England are likely in the coming weeks as the country reels from a new coronavirus variant that has pushed infection rates to their highest recorded levels.

Johnson, though, insisted hehas“nodoubt”thatschools are safe and urged parents to send their children back into the classroom in areas of England where they can. Unions representing teachers have called for schools to turn to remote learning for at least a couple ofweeks more due to thenewvariant, which scientists have said is up to 70% more contagious.

The U.K. is in the midst of an acute outbreak, recording more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day overthepastsixdays. OnSunday, it notched up another 54,990 cases, down slightly fromthe previous day’s daily recordof 57,725. Thecountry also recorded another 454 virus-related deaths to take the total to75,024. According to figures compiled by Johns HopkinsUniversity, theU.K. is alternating with Italy as the worst-hit European nation.

“Weareentirelyreconciled to do what it takes to get the virus under control, thatmay involve toughermeasures in the weeks ahead,” Johnson said in an interviewwith the BBC. “Obviously there are a range of tougher measures that we would have to consider.”

Johnson conceded that school closures, curfews and the total banning of household mixing could be on the agenda for areas under the most stress.

London and southeast England are facing extremely high levels of new infections and there is speculation that restrictions there willhave to betightenedtobringthevirus under control. In some parts of the British capital and its surrounding areas, there are more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.