National lockdown coming warns Boris Johnson as ‘tough’ weeks ahead

01/04/2021

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Boris Johnson today warned "there’s no question" the Government will have to enforce tougher lockdown measures in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The Prime Minister said Brits face "tougher" weeks ahead and confirmed the Government will be announcing new measures in "due course."

During a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in North London today, Mr Johnson said: "If you look at the numbers there's no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course."

He also said there will be a "massive ramp up" in the NHS’ ability to vaccinate people following the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca inoculation.

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Mr Johnson said: "There's a massive ramp up operation now going on.

"The rate limiting factor is now not supply of vaccines although we want that to go faster, it's getting them properly tested and getting them to the NHS.

"It's not the ability to distribute the vaccine, it's not the shortage of staff. It's getting it properly tested. That will ramp up in the weeks ahead."

It is unclear when the restrictions will be announced but earlier today Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the first step would be to escalate even more of the country into the harsher Tier 4 restrictions.

Mr Hancock said: "The old tier system is no longer strong enough' because the new variant is much easier to catch, it is much more transmissible, and we're now seeing the effect of that in lots of different parts of the country."

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Adding: "We don't rule anything out, and we've shown repeatedly that we will look at the public health advice and we will take the public health advice in terms of what is needed to control the spread of the disease.'

"We have shown we are ready to move incredibly quickly…

"We look at the data on a daily basis."

The suggestion sparked fury from ministers who said three-quarters of England are already subject to Tier 4 and a strict lockdown should now be considered.

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