UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that tougher measures are likely to be needed to combat the pandemic, including closing schools.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday, Johnson did not elaborate on what kind of additional measures might be needed and dismissed criticism that his government has been too slow to act, since the most contagious form of the virus spreads rapidly across the country.
“We may need to do things in the coming weeks that are more difficult in many parts of the country,” said Johnson. “The UK is battling a new variant of the virus that is emerging especially in London and the south east and that is why we have had to take exceptional measures for some parts.”
One of the biggest questions the government now faces is how to manage the reopening of schools at a time when cases of viruses in the UK exceed 50,000 a day. The Johnson government has been trying to maintain face-to-face classes in England during the pandemic, and on Sunday, the prime minister tried to reassure parents that schools are safe and that the virus poses little risk to young people.
“We have kept schools running for a long, long time in areas where the pandemic reaches very high levels,” said Johnson. “We have to keep things under constant review, but we will be driven not by any political considerations, but entirely by the issue of public health.”
Johnson’s statements are in stark contrast to warnings from the teachers’ unions, which have told members not to return to classrooms. In London, which has one of the country’s highest levels of Covid-19 infections per capita, the government has ordered all primary schools to remain closed for the start of the new semester this week.
Forced to retreat
During the pandemic, the UK government was forced to back down several times in efforts to reopen the economy, especially as the resurgence of the virus in winter pushes public health services to the limit. More recently, Johnson was forced to give up plans that would have relaxed the rules of social distance during Christmas.
When asked about the UK’s plans for mass vaccination, Johnson offered no details on how the country would be able to deliver 2 million vaccines a week.
“Everyone is working hard to do this,” he said. “We do hope that we will be able to make tens of millions over the next three months. “
In Scotland, Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for the parliament in Edinburgh to be recalled on Monday so that she can establish extra measures to stem the increase in infections. At the moment, schools are due to return to face-to-face education on January 18, after an extended Christmas holiday.
Covid-19’s daily cases have increased to record levels and Sturgeon said the country has faced its most critical weeks since the pandemic began. The new strain is responsible for four out of ten new infections, a public health expert at the University of Edinburgh told the BBC.
– With the help of Rodney Jefferson
(Updates with information about blocking rules in the sixth paragraph.)