BORIS Johnson has been warned that the UK is a “long way” from emerging from the coronavirus crisis after he signalled ministers would look at easing lockdown measures next month.
The Prime Minister said he wanted England’s schools to reopen “as fast as possible” and the Government would be “looking at the potential of relaxing some measures” when restrictions are reviewed on February 15.
But at a Downing Street press conference, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and England’s deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries struck a more cautious tone, highlighting the strain coronavirus cases were putting on the NHS.
The Prime Minister faces pressure from Tories to set out a timetable for pupils to return to class – currently only vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers are attending school, with home learning for all others.
Johnson could not guarantee that pupils would return before Easter, telling reporters: “We want to see schools back as fast as possible, we want to do that in a way that is consistent with fighting the epidemic and keeping the infection rate down.”
READ MORE: Another four people die in Scotland after contracting Covid-19
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government would examine the data “and that will inform what we may or may not be able to ease from [February] 15 onwards”.
But Hancock said that the “facts on the ground” showed the “pressure on the NHS remains huge”.
There were 37,000 people in the UK in hospital with coronavirus, almost twice the peak in the first wave in April, and more people were on ventilators than at any time in the pandemic.
Hancock said he understood the “yearning” to get out of the lockdown but added: “I think most people understand why it is difficult to put a timeline on it.”
While there are “better days that lie ahead”, Hancock said, “we have to hold our nerve and persevere through this difficult winter”.
Hancock added: “This is not a moment to ease up.”
Dr Harries warned: “We are not out of this by a very long way.”
The current coronavirus rates were still causing concern, patience was needed about the vaccination programme and the NHS still faced the usual winter pressures, she said.
Johnson said: “I do think now this massive achievement has been made of rolling out this vaccination programme, I think people want to see us making sure we don’t throw that away by having a premature relaxation and then another big surge of infection.”
In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that plans to vaccinate everyone in Scotland who is over 80 years old by the first week of February are "well on track".
READ MORE: Controversial delay between Covid jags may offer 'more significant' protection
Over the next couple of weeks and starting from today, over-70s in Scotland will receive a letter containing an appointment to get a Covid jag.
Sturgeon said that all over-70s in Scotland should be vaccinated against Covid by the middle of February.
Official UK figures showed a further 592 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, while there had been a further 22,195 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is widely expected to confirm this week that there will be no return to classrooms in England after the February half-term break, as ministers had hoped.
A minister is expected to answer an urgent question on the issue in the Commons on Tuesday.
Robert Halfon, Tory chairman of the Commons Education Committee, told the BBC: “It may be that one thing the Government should consider is that even if there are tighter restrictions in other parts of our society and economy, you have those restrictions in order to enable the schools to open.”
READ MORE: Map: How many people have had the Covid vaccine in my area?
Meanwhile, senior ministers are due to meet on Tuesday to consider requiring travellers arriving in the UK to pay to quarantine at a designated hotel, following concerns about new coronavirus variants being imported from elsewhere in the world.
Johnson said: “We have to realise there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in, we’ve got to be able to keep that under control.”
He said “that idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we’re actively now working on”.
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