Boris Johnson's spokesman today refused to give any update from the Prime Minister on the Covid surge in the UK, despite it being five days since the Prime Minister last spoke.
Mr Johnson has been back in Downing Street this morning after taking a two-day 'mini-moon' following his wedding on Saturday.
But despite mounting fears he will have to delay England's June 21 lockdown easing, No10 could give no update from the PM today.
Instead, the Prime Minister's deputy official spokesman repeatedly pointed back to Boris Johnson ’s comments last Thursday, and offered no further update.
Mr Johnson said on Thursday: “I don't see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the road map. But we may need to wait.”
The PM's deputy official spokesman, in his only briefing of the week to journalists, added: “I haven’t spoken to the Prime Minister this morning.”
Asked what the position was on the surge in cases, the spokesman said: “You’ve got what the Prime Minister said on Thursday. All I can do is re-highlight what we’ve said when we published the roadmap.
“We will use the five weeks between steps to analyse and monitor the data against the four steps we’ve set out. We will obviously continue to do so.”
Asked if Boris Johnson had not looked at any figures since last Thursday, the spokesman said: “No, the Prime Minister and government looks at the latest data on a daily basis.
“We continue to monitor the pandemic in terms of the number of hospitalisations, cases and deaths.”
But then asked again repeatedly if the Prime Minister’s view had changed since Thursday, he failed to say.
Ministers and officials are locked in talks over the B.1.617.2 strain, first found in India, amid speculation some lockdown rules - like mask-wearing - will have to remain.
The UK reported 3,383 new cases yesterday - the sixth day in a row the figure topped 3,000 - and the rolling average has risen from 2,597 to 3,345 in a week.
The rolling average of daily deaths has crept up from 5.7 to 8.3, and hospital admissions have also risen in recent weeks.
Vaccine second doses are being “surged” to the most vulnerable as officials hope everyone over 50 can be given a second dose by June 21.
But while the jab appears to reduce the risk of going to hospital with the B.1.617.2 strain it does not totally eliminate it.
A Tory minister today refused to say if Step Four of the government’s roadmap - which would lift all legal limits on indoor gatherings and reopen nightclubs - can go ahead as planned on June 21.
Paul Scully told LBC radio: “We do just need to be careful. We need to err on the side of caution. No decisions have been made - we’ll only do that based on the latest and most accurate data.”
It comes days after ex-aide Dominic Cummings accused Boris Johnson of being absent from key decisions at the start of the pandemic.
“The basic thought was that in February the Prime Minister regarded this as just a scare story,” said Mr Cummings. “He described it as the new swine flu.”
Since then, Mr Johnson's government has repeatedly been accused of acting too late when asked to lock down.
Today the British Medical Association, experts and government advisors lined up to warn ending all restrictions prematurely could lead to an explosion of cases.
Dr Lisa Spencer, honorary secretary of the British Thoracic Society, warned variant hotspots are like “volcanoes” that “could explode and send a massive gas plume across much more of the UK”.
Advisor to the government Prof Ravi Gupta, a member of SAGE subgroup NERVTAG, today declared the easing should be delayed for “probably a month”.
Prof Gupta - who yesterday warned Britain may already be in a third wave - told Sky News: “My personal opinion is I think it’s a bit early.
“I think we need at least a few weeks - probably a month until schools have closed, when the risk of transmission within schools falls during summer holidays.
"It then gives us another four weeks' worth of data to collect about how the virus is growing in the population."
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