'Can't rule it out' Eustice says Boris to review new lockdown just one week before June 21
GEORGE EUSTICE said coronavirus rates "are going up" amid major concerns Boris could plunge UK into fourth lockdown.
George Eustice discusses Covid review
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government "couldn't rule anything out" when asked whether the June 21 target for scrapping all coronavirus restrictions could be delayed. He also told listeners on Radio 4 Today prgramme that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make an annoucnement just one week before lockdown is due to end. Concerns are rising over the number of cases the new indian coronavirus variant is causing as it sweeps through communities up and down the country.
The Cabinet minister said: "The Prime Minister has said all along that he is going to take this one step at a time and will only make the judgment on the next step, on June 21, about a week before that.
"I think he is expected to say something in a couple of weeks' time on June 14."
Mr Eustice added: "The rates are going up again slightly but from a low base and probably to be expected, given there are a significant number of younger people who are now out and mixing but haven't had the vaccine - I suppose that is to be expected.
"But the right thing to do in a couple of weeks' time is to assess that data before deciding what we can do."
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Asked whether businesses should prepare for a delay to the unlocking, Mr Eustice replied: "I've said all along, as has Matt Hancock and the Prime Minister, we can't rule anything out.
"Because we know this has been a difficult pandemic, a dynamic situation."
He added: "We have to make that judgment a couple of weeks before.
"It will only be by then that we will see the full impact of the latest easements we made on May 17."
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The MP added: "So I know everyone wants to know what is going to happen.
"But we can't actually make that judgment until we see the impact of the easements just made."
The concerns come as on Sunday Professor Linda Bauld, Chair of Public Health in The Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh said the current June 21 lockdown easing date was "too soon" as fears rise over the spread of the Indian variant.
She told Sky News' Trevor Philips: “I think it is very ambitious looking at the national picture."
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The professor added: "I really think it is too early to be charging ahead, I would like to see several more weeks data.
"Other countries like Israel that have fully opened up have many more who have full protection from the vaccine and we are just not there yet."
And in a worrying conclusion, she said: "We can’t commit to the towards the end of June."
On Saturday a further 3,398 positive coronavirus cases were recorded in the UK while 7 people sadly died.