The Business Secretary has ruled out another Covid lockdown this winter amid incredibly high case numbers and deaths.
Kwasi Kwarteng credited the vaccine rollout for removing the need for another lockdown, adding that the situation can be “managed”.
Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News this morning (Wednesday, October 20), he encouraged people to take up the booster jab, and for children to be vaccinated.
Kay Burley questioned the current Covid case numbers from the start of the interview, asking: “What on earth is going on?”
The minister acknowledged that numbers are high, but insisted that the situation can be “managed”.
He said: “That’s something we really need to address.”
When pushed on a return to Covid restrictions and lockdown, the Business Secretary did not totally rule out some restrictions, but did categorically say that a new lockdown would not happen.
Kay Burley asked: “Stephen Reicher, who as you know is a member of SAGE, is advocating Plan C and saying that we can’t rule out another lockdown?”
“No, I would rule that out” was the answer from the government minister.
“Throughout this process, there’ve been people saying the lockdown was unnecessary, and there’ve been other people saying we should continue the lockdown. We’ve really plotted a path between those two extremes. I think it’s worked.”
He credited the vaccine rollout, but did say that takeup of the booster jab and the vaccination of 12-15 year olds was crucial.
He did admit that the government is “concerned” about the current death rates, saying: “It’s the situation that we are concerned about.”
He insisted that the best way to manage the situation was for people to take up the offer of a booster jab, and for those not already vaccinated to get that organised as soon as possible.
Mr Kwarteng told Sky News: “The critical thing, as my colleague the Health Secretary has said, is about hospitalisation and also deaths, and thank god those figures are much lower, certainly, than they were at the beginning of the year.”
The government is planning a communications campaign to encourage a wider takeup of initial vaccine doses and booster jabs, saying that with a good takeup “the situation can be managed well”.
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