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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold an emergency meeting with his cabinet before addressing the public at 4pm Saturday amid speculation that tougher restrictions will be put in place to curb a rapidly spreading new variant of the coronavirus.
Johnson held an unscheduled meeting with government ministers on Friday to discuss how to combat the new strain of the disease, which is currently concentrated in London and southeast England. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the variant spreading faster was behind the case numbers climbing in that part of the country.
“There is currently no evidence to suggest that the new strain causes a higher death rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this,” Whitty said. “Given this latest development, it is now more important than ever that the public in their area continues to take action to reduce carryover.”
Travel restrictions are among the measures being discussed and could be introduced as early as Saturday, the Telegraph reported, citing unidentified sources. A ban on commuters traveling to London is also being considered, the paper reports.
On Friday, Johnson declined one third UK lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. Britain would join Italy and Austria in tightening the curbs over the holiday season, with all three countries facing rapidly increasing numbers of cases.