PM ‘had no choice’ as one in 50 had Covid-19
BORIS JOHNSON has said he had “no choice” but to plunge England into a third national lockdown, as new figures suggested one in 50 people had coronavirus last week.
The Prime Minister vowed to use “every second” under the stringent restrictions to put an “invisible shield” around the elderly and vulnerable through a mass vaccination programme.
He said last night that, so far, more than 1.3 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 across the UK, including 23% of all the over80s in England.
Mr Johnson, speaking at a Downing Street press conference the day after announcing new national controls, said: “I believe that, when everybody looks at the position, people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice.
“When the Office of National Statistics (ONS) is telling us that more than 2% of the population is now infected – that’s over one million people in England.
“And when today we have reported another 60,000 new cases, and when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40% higher than at the first peak in April, I think obviously everybody – you all – want to be sure that we in Government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination and so to begin to bring this crisis to an end.”
Mr Johnson said there is a “prospect” the coronavirus lockdown in England can be eased in mid-February.
The Prime Minister added: “When a very considerable proportion of the most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated... then there really is the prospect of beginning the relaxation of some of these measures.
“But you will also appreciate there are a lot of caveats, a lot of ifs built into that, the most important of which is that we all now follow the guidance.”
Mr Johnson declined to guarantee that all children would be back in school before the summer holidays, but said he is full of “optimism and fundamental hope” that things will be different in the spring.
Asked to guarantee that all pupils will be back in classrooms before the summer holidays, the Prime Minister told the Downing Street press conference: “We think that, with the vaccination programme, we can do a huge amount to take out of the path of the virus those who are most vulnerable. That clearly offers opportunities to our country to do things differently.
“I am full of the same optimism and fundamental hope about the position that I think [England’s chief medical officer] Chris [Whitty] has adopted, and I really think that things will be very different in the spring and that’s what I would certainly say to every parent in the land.”
The ONS figures show an estimated 1.1 million people in private households in England had Covid-19 between December 27 and January 2 – equivalent to around 2.06% of the population.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the vaccine timetable was “realistic but not easy”.
He added: “The NHS is going to have to use multiple channels to get this out but they are very determined to do this, but that does not make it easy.
“And, of course, in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, as I think is widely reported, it’s more difficult to handle because of the complicated cold-chain model.
“We also, with both vaccines, wanted to be very careful in the first two or three days that we went a little bit slowly, just in case there were some initial unexpected problems.”
In other developments:
The UK recorded 60,916 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases as of 9am yesterday – the highest daily total reported so far.
A further 830 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of yesterday, the Government said.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £4.6 billion support package for businesses across the UK, with one-off topup grants worth up to £9,000 for firms in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.