The Prime Minister downplayed the prospect of a new shutdown, but said it would be an option in the event of a harmful new mutation. He ruled against a fourth lockdown at the height of the Omicron wave, introducing home guidance and mandatory masks instead, saying the UK could “overcome this wave without closing our country again”. In an interview with GB News with Conservative MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies, Mr Johnson was asked if future lockdowns would be imposed. “I want to prevent this from happening again and I can not rule it out,” he said. “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, and I think the things we did saved lives.”
“The virus loses all its power”
He warned that “there could be a new variant” that could be “more deadly”, adding: “There could be a variation that affects children badly and which we really need to limit. “I’re not going to take any choices off the table, but I do not think it will happen. in the UK”. Eleven children died from Covid as the underlying cause during the first year of the pandemic, according to the National Statistics Office in February. Covid hospitalization in the UK is currently at its highest level since January, although the average number of reported deaths remains lower than during the winter. More than nine in 10 Britons over the age of 12 have now received at least one dose of Covid vaccine.
