Kwasi Kwarteng rules out a fourth Covid lockdown over winter
Kwasi Kwarteng has today ruled out another winter lockdown, after warnings from some scientists that Covid curbs should be re-implemented over winter.
The business secretary said he was “concerned” about increasing daily death rates, but pointed out that “at the beginning of the year we had hundreds, if not thousands, a day”.
There were 223 deaths from Covid yesterday, the highest daily tally since March. However, the country was in lockdown at this point and vaccination numbers were far lower.
The NHS Confederation, an advocacy body for NHS providers, has called for the government to implement its Plan B winter Covid restrictions.
This would include mandatory mask wearing, enforced vaccine passports for large events and instructions to work from home.
Health secretary Sajid Javid will hold a Covid press conference at 5pm today where he is expected to say that there are no plans for extra Covid restrictions.
Speaking to Sky News today, Kwarteng said the government does not “feel that it’s the time for Plan B right now”.
He told Times Radio: “There is the risk of greater infections but the critical thing here is looking at the hospitalisation and sadly death rates, and those, compared to where we were even just in January, are much, much lower.”
Kwarteng said he had made plans for a Christmas party in a bid to ease fears that the economy could shutdown over winter.
The business secretary did say that the UK needed to improve its vaccination rates for booster jabs as we come into winter.
Figures show that older people eligible for their third jab are not coming forward in great numbers to get their booster vaccine, which could result in increasing infections and deaths as immunity wains.
Former Sage adviser and an early advocate of the original lockdown Professor Neil Ferguson told the BBC today: “I think we need to be on the case, and we do need to prioritise the [booster] vaccination programme but we’re not in the same position as last year.”