Stricter lockdown restriction likely on the way, says UK PM Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that tougher lockdown restrictions were probably on the way as Covid-19 cases keep rising, but that schools were safe places and children should continue to attend where permitted.

Cases of Covid-19 in Britain are at record levels and increasing, fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. That has already forced the government to cancel the planned reopening of schools in and around London, with calls from teaching unions for wider closures.

Much of England is already living under the toughest level of restriction set out in a four-tier system of regional regulations designed to stop the spread of the virus and protect the national healthcare system.

But Johnson, asked in a BBC interview about concerns that the system may not be enough to bring the virus back under control, said that restrictions "alas, might be about to get tougher".

"There are obviously a range of tougher measures that we would have to consider ... I'm not going to speculate now about what they would be."

Johnson sets policy for England, with rules in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales set by their devolved authorities.

Britain recorded 57,725 new cases of the virus on Saturday, and with more than 74,000 deaths so far during the pandemic the government's response has been heavily criticised.

However the rollout of vaccines was set to accelerate on Monday with the first 530,000 doses of the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines ready to be administered, Johnson said. He added he hoped "tens of millions" would be treated over the next three months.

Addressing concerns over education, and with millions of pupils set to return from their Christmas holidays on Monday, Johnson said schools were safe, and advised parents to send their children in, in areas where rules allow it.

"There is no doubt in my mind that schools are safe, and that education is a priority," he said.

The schools issue has split opinion, with unions and some local authorities warning against reopening and threatening to act against government advice, and others saying that closures also have a big negative impact on students.

"We must renew and maintain the consensus that children's time out of school should be kept to the absolute minimum," Amanda Spielman, chief schools inspector, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Germany poised to extend coronavirus lockdown

Germany is likely to extend a national lockdown beyond Jan. 10 to curb coronavirus infection rates that are still running high and putting huge strains on hospitals and health workers, politicians said at the weekend.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders are expected to agree to extend the restrictions when they convene on Tuesday. It is not yet clear how long the extension would last.

Police officers block the boulevard 'Strasse des 17. Juni' on which the New Year's Eve celebrations with thousands of people have usually taken place in previous years, during the coronavirus disease (COVIDovid-19) outbreak, in Berlin, Germany, on December 31, 2020. File photo: Reuters/ Hannibal Hanschke

"The numbers are still too high, so we will have to prolong the restrictions," Health Minister Jens Spahn told RTL television in an interview on Saturday evening.

Infection rates had to be sustainably reduced, Spahn said, adding: "That is better than loosening too early and then, perhaps in as little as a few weeks, facing new and difficult questions."

Germany imposed tougher social restrictions before Christmas, including closing restaurants and most shops. Even so, infections continued to rise and the death toll has hit more than 1,000 on some days.

Seven-day infection rates are currently at 140 per 100,000 people - well over the target of 50 that politicians have agreed would be safe enough to ease the curbs.

With a new, more infectious coronavirus variant circulating, some politicians and health leaders are calling for the restrictions to be lifted only when the seven-day rate falls to 25.

"We will only see next week in the hospitals how strongly Christmas contributed to the spread of Covid-19 - the New Year effect will come only later," Uwe Janssens, head of a group representing intensive-care doctors, told the Rheinische Post.

Officials from Germany's 16 states agreed on a conference call on Saturday to extend restrictions, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported.

But there was disagreement over how much longer to keep the measures in force. Some harder-hit states called for a three-week extension, and for schools to be kept closed, while others favoured a two-week extension.

The Robert Koch Institute, the agency coordinating Germany's pandemic response, reported 10,315 new confirmed cases on Sunday and 312 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to 34,272.