The prime minister was asked about the possibility of imposing new restrictions in an interview with GB News, which will air on Saturday. It comes as new figures from the National Statistics Office reveal that around 4.1 million people had Covid in the UK by the week of April 2 – about one in 13 people. Although Mr Johnson insisted he wanted to “prevent this from happening again”, he added: “I can not rule [it] outside.” He continued: “I can not say that we will not be forced to do non-pharmaceutical interventions again as we did. “I think it would be irresponsible for any leader, in any democracy, to say that he is going to rule out something that could save lives. “I think the things we did saved lives.” Hospital admissions are currently at their highest level since January 2021 and have surpassed the Omicron wave peak earlier this year. Statistics from the UK Health Surveillance Agency show that the total admission rate to Covid Hospital for England reached 20.5 per 100,000 people in the week ending 3 April. But the rate is still much lower than the all-time high of 36 per 100,000 at the beginning of last January. The symptoms are generally less severe than previous variants such as Delta, but Mr Johnson warned that “there could be a new, more deadly variant” emerging. He said: “I have to be completely honest with you, there could be a new variant more deadly, there could be a variation that affects children, that we really need to limit, I’re not going to remove the table option but I do not think It will be done. “We are now in a phase where the virus is completely gone and we have a massively vaccinated population in the UK.” Nearly 92 percent of the population aged 12 and over has received the first dose of the vaccine, while 86 percent has received the second dose and 68 percent has received the booster dose or the third dose.
