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There aren’t any plans for a “firebreak” lockdown in October, the federal government mentioned right this moment, describing such measures “a final resort”.
It had been reported that ministers had been contemplating emergency lockdown plans over the half-term college holidays subsequent month.
The prime minister’s official spokesman mentioned it was “not true”, including: “Now we have retained contingency plans as a part of accountable planning for a variety of situations, however these sort of measures would solely be reintroduced as a final resort to stop unsustainable strain on our NHS.
“I feel we’ve been clear all through that we’ll take motion, and certainly we have now completed when needed to guard our NHS.
“However underneath the earlier events when that motion has been required, we have now been with out the numerous defences that our vaccination programme gives us — we’re now in a a lot completely different section.”
The i newspaper reported an nameless member of the federal government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) saying contingency plans had been drawn up within the face of current rises in hospital admissions and instances.
They mentioned the plan — just like one it proposed final yr — would make sure the NHS was not overwhelmed by an “prolonged peak” of instances within the coming weeks.
It may contain extending the half-term college holidays to a fortnight, moderately than every week, they advised.
“It will be wise to have contingency plans, and if a lockdown is required, to time it in order that it has minimal financial and societal impression,” they mentioned.
“We’re going to be at a peak, albeit an prolonged peak, fairly quickly, so it’s not likely the identical state of affairs as final yr, when failure to scale back prevalence would have resulted in collapse of the NHS and folks dying in automotive parks.
“Hospitals could be overflowing earlier than deaths attain the identical degree. Appearing early will stop this degree.”
Earlier this morning, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi had instructed BBC Breakfast that he had not seen any such plan. “No, I haven’t seen any … I do know the place this query comes from. The i newspaper was reporting that they suppose there could possibly be a doable lockdown,” he mentioned.
“Vaccines have given us the flexibility to scale back infections, to save lots of 100,000 lives.
“It’s by the booster programme that I hope … we are able to transition the virus from pandemic to endemic standing and cope with it yr in, yr out. It will be with us for a few years — however [we will] not have to shut down our financial system or take the extreme measures we needed to sadly soak up December of final yr.”
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