PM: I won’t rule out another national lockdown

BORIS Johnson has not ruled out a third national lockdown amid rising rates of coronavirus, as health chiefs warn of the toll on frontline staff and services from festive mixing.

The Prime Minister said rates of infection have increased “very much in the last few weeks”, as pressure grows on the Government to do more to tackle the rise.

Northern Ireland and Wales are bracing for lockdowns in the days after Christmas, and a senior emergency medicine doctor said the rest of the UK must do “whatever it takes” to get infections under control.

Speaking during a visit to Bolton, Greater Manchester, Mr Johnson was asked whether England would follow Northern Ireland in imposing stringent restrictions after the festive period.

He said: “We’re hoping very much that we will be able to avoid anything like that. But the reality is that the rates of infection have increased very much in the last few weeks.”

Schools minister Nick Gibb earlier insisted England’s tier system, which will see swathes of southern and eastern England move to the toughest restrictions from Saturday, is “very effective”. But he added “we rule nothing out” when asked about the possibility of a national lockdown after Christmas.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged Mr Johnson to set out his plan for averting a third lockdown, something he said would be “hugely damaging on health grounds” as well as for the economy. He suggested limiting Christmas to mixing only between two households instead of three would be a “step in the right direction” and that numbers within households could also be considered.

The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson, described a “real perfect storm” for hospitals as they try to balance increased numbers of Covid-19 patients with non-Covid work and a lack of beds. She said: “It seems to me we need to do whatever it takes to get the situation firmly under control so that we can vaccinate people and then move forward.” In other developments:

■ The latest figures from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show the reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus transmission across the UK is estimated to have risen to between 1.1 and 1.2.

■ Analysis of Public Health England data showed London, eastern England and south-east England have Covid-19 case rates that are higher than when the second lockdown began on November 5.

■ Advice from a coalition of education unions said secondary schools and colleges that are unable to set up mass testing of students for the first week of January should not be forced to.

■ President Donald Trump said a second coronavirus vaccine, made by Moderna, has been approved for use in the US. The jab, of which the UK Government has secured seven million doses, is still under consideration for approval here by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).