In an interview with the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, Johnson was concerned about whether the restrictions currently in place in the worst-hit areas of England are doing enough as hospitals fill Covid-19 patients.
“It may be that in the next few weeks we have to do things that will be more difficult in many parts of the country. I am completely reconciled with that,” Johnson said. “I bet the people of this country have been reconciled with it,” he added.
Johnson is under pressure to elaborate on what the stricter restrictions may be: “There are, of course, a series of stricter measures we will have to consider. I do not want to speculate, I am not going to speculate now on what that would be.
“It is clear that the closure of the school we had to do in March was one of the things (…),” he added, while the dispute over the government’s mixed messages over the reopening of schools remains the headlines. dominate.
Johnson’s warning about the same program in October last year warned, ‘It’s bumpy, and it’s going to be bumpy.’
But the Prime Minister insisted that by spring the situation across the country should improve as more people are vaccinated.
Under the current system, most of England falls under the strictest Tier 3 and Tier 4 restrictions – with the latter for the whole of London – with a strict home message.
On Saturday, the UK recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus infections since the onset of the pandemic, with another 57,725 new cases of coronavirus and 445 deaths. The country was one of the hardest hit in Europe, with more than 2.6 million infections in total and nearly 75,000 deaths.
But some scientists have warned that stricter measures are needed if a new, more contagious variant of the virus, which has spread across London, south-east England and especially parts of Wales in recent weeks, is to be brought under control.
Some London hospitals are now nearly two-thirds full of Covid-19 patients, Royal College of Physicians president Andrew Goddard said on Saturday.
Both primary and secondary schools across London and some other parts of South East England will remain closed for personal learning for at least the next two weeks, except for vulnerable pupils and children of critical workers. The return of high school students has been delayed in England.
Mass vaccination hopes
The UK government is pinning its hopes on a return to some sort of normality on a speedy implementation of the vaccinations, with priority given to the elderly and those who are clinically vulnerable, as well as health and social care workers.
Asked about the amount of doses available for the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which was approved by UK regulators on Wednesday, Johnson told Marr that 530,000 doses would be ready by Monday to top the ‘million or so ‘to give. Pfizer / BioNTechCovid-19 vaccine already distributed.
However, he could not say how many doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine are ready to be administered.
‘We do hope that we will be able to make tens of thousands of millions [of Covid-19 vaccines] in the next three months I can definitely give you the figure, ‘the prime minister said.
Johnson said this strategy is based on the use of three vaccines, the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines – both approved in the UK last month – and the Moderna vaccine, which will be ready to ‘ soon ‘to use.
Johnson said what he said on the same program in October last year, saying, “I thought spring was going better. I stick to it.”
Earlier on Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted that the country had administered 1 million doses of Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, saying “the end is in sight.”
Many of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines have been arriving at hospitals since Monday.
The vaccine is cheaper and easier to distribute than the Pfizer / BioNTech jab, as it can be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures for at least six months. Both the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines must be stored frozen.
New variant threat
Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted on Sunday that her cabinet would meet the next day to “consider further action to limit the spread” of the more contagious variant that has increased infection rates in England – and that she would revoked to hear his decision. .
“We are, like other countries, in a race between this faster-spread strain of Covid and the vaccination program,” she said.
“All decisions are difficult now, with difficult consequences. Vaccines give us a way out, but this new tension makes the period between now (and) the most dangerous since the start of the pandemic. The responsibility of the government must therefore be to act quickly. act (and) decisively in the national interest, ”she said.
Johnson pushed back against Marr’s proposal that his government had not fully prepared for the challenges of winter and the possibility of a mutation in the coronavirus, although he was warned in a government order in July about the threats. .
“This government has taken every possible step we could reasonably take to prepare this country for the effects of winter,” Johnson said. “What we could not foresee, I think, is quite reasonably the arrival of a new variant of the virus, which has spread faster between 50 and 70%. Once we have realized this, I think, December 18 … we decisive action taken. ‘
As of January 1, at least thirty countries, including the United States, have reported cases of the more contagious variant of the coronavirus first detected in the United Kingdom.
According to health officials, there is no evidence that the variant is more deadly or causes worse diseases.