Boris Johnson has announced that the government will not be bringing in new covid restrictions before Christmas, though he left the door open for new measures later on.
The prime minister believes there is not enough evidence to justify tougher measures at the moment, and tweeting out a video message, Johnson said he understood that the public needed to make Christmas plans amid a complex situation.
He also promised that the government would ‘keep a constant eye on the data’.
Johnson said there was ‘no doubt that Omicron continues to surge with a speed unlike anything we’ve seen before’ and as such the government ‘can’t rule out any further measures after Christmas’.
He went on to say that the public should still ‘exercise caution’ and follow the government’s guidance on wearing masks in an indoor setting.
The prime minister also urged people to get their covid booster jabs by finding a walk-in vaccination site or booking online.
The announcement follows an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday during which iNews reports that 10 cabinet members, including Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, wanted to wait for more data on the Omicron variant before making a decision on tougher restrictions.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) had warned the government that waiting too long will reduce the effectiveness of any restrictions brought in.
SAGE member Professor Stephen Reicher told Times Radio that a circuit breaker would be the most effective option to curb the spread of the virus, but introducing restrictions after Christmas would be ‘probably too late’ because after Christmas ‘we will have had a huge surge of infections with all the impact upon society’.
Even though we won’t be seeing restrictions before Christmas, be prepared for the government to introduce new measures afterwards.
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Topics: News, Boris Johnson, Christmas, Coronavirus, COVID, Now
