Boris Johnson said the Government is “anxious” and is “ruling nothing out” in tackling the Indian variant of concern, as Public Health England data shows cases have more than doubled in the past week.
The Prime Minister saying: “It is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it. At the moment there is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen.
“We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do.
“There is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out.” later adding “There may be things we have to do locally.”
Data from Public Health England (PHE) shows a rise in cases from 520 to 1,313 this week in the UK.
Dr Susan Hopkins, Covid-19 strategic response director at PHE, said: “We need to act collectively and responsibly to ensure that variants do not impact on the progress we have all made to drive down levels of Covid-19 and the increased freedom that brings.”
