Prime Minister Boris Johnson says local lockdowns for England have not been ruled out as he says he is 'anxious' about Indian Covid.
Asked today if local lockdowns were possible, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it.
“Obviously there’s surge testing, there’s surge tracing.”
He added: “If we have to do other things, then of course the public would want us to rule nothing out. We have always been clear we would be led by the data.
“At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21, everywhere, but there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.”
Downing Street said there were “no plans” to reintroduce the tier system in England amid concerns local restrictions could be needed in areas where variants are identified.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “We have set out what we want to do on the road map, moving together as a nation on this, and that has been very successful so far.
“There are no plans to reintroduce tiering measures, like I say we have got a raft of measures available to us which are already in place, with regards local testing, surge testing and tracing.”
Asked about concerns over the Indian variant circulating in the UK, the Prime Minister said: “It is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it.”
Speaking at a primary school in Ferryhill, County Durham, Boris Johnson said: “At the moment there is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen.
“We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do.
“There is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out.”
Asked if masks and social distancing were going, Boris Johnson said more announcements will be made before the end of the month.
He added: “I think we have to wait a little bit longer to see how the data is looking but I am cautiously optimistic about that and provided this Indian variant doesn’t take off in the way some people fear, I think certainly things could get back much, much closer to normality.”
Downing Street said officials would not “rule anything out” when asked if the Government was considering surge vaccinations to accompany surge testing in areas with spikes of new variants.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: “We want to consider all options.
“The Prime Minister said earlier today we’re not going to rule anything out, we want to make sure that we keep the public safe and keep our road map on track.
“The meeting is happening with Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) today and should they come out with any further updates on this variant originating in India and the epidemiology in the UK then we will consider it.”
