The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has refused to rule out further Covid-19 restrictions being implemented before Christmas in England.
“I just can’t make hard fast guarantees,” Raab told Sky News on Monday.
“I think we will have a much better Christmas than last year because of the vaccination level,” he added.
It comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the BBC on Sunday “there are no guarantees in this pandemic” when asked about a possible circuit-breaker lockdown and further pre-Christmas restrictions to mitigate the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
In his interview with Sky News, Raab also downplayed British media reports that 10 government Cabinet ministers are questioning the advice to impose further restrictions given by the government’s Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) last week.
If further coronavirus measures are not introduced very soon Covid-19 hospital admissions could reach 3,000 a day in England, SAGE warned.
Raab said: “We always, all of us, question the advice and I don’t think that should be presented as some sort of tectonic opposition to the scientists.”
Asked if he was among those opposing, he replied: “No, no. I fully support the approach that the government has taken so far.”