COVID-19: Boris Johnson says it ‘looks good’ for July 19 – but will not rule out further lockdowns in winter | Politics News

The Prime Minister said it “looks good” that July 19 is the “end point” of UK coronavirus restrictions – but has not ruled out the prospect of further closures in winter.

“You can never rule out that there will be a new disease, a new horror that we just haven’t budgeted for or factored in,” Boris Johnson said when asked if he could rule out the possibility of re-imposing COVID-19[female[feminine measurements later this year.

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“But looking at where we are at, the effectiveness of vaccines against all the variants that we can currently see, I think it looks good that July 19 is that end point.”

The prime minister said the country could experience a “harsh winter for all kinds of reasons”.

He continued: ‘Obviously the NHS is under great pressure which is all the more reason to reduce the number of COVID cases now, give the NHS the breathing space it needs to cope to all those other pressures.

“We will definitely invest to make sure they can.”

Government adviser Dr Susan Hopkins warned over the weekend that winter shutdowns may be necessary if hospitals become “overwhelmed” at any point.

Mr Johnson also played down the prospect of an early lifting of COVID restrictions.

When he announced a four-week postponement of the fourth stage of England’s roadmap out of lockdown – pushing it back from June 21 to July 19 – the PM said a review would take place on July 5 to see if action could be taken sooner.

But while Mr Johnson has said the vaccination rollout has “become a gangbuster”, the number of Delta variant cases “unfortunately continues to increase”.

“It increases by about 30% per week in cases, hospitalizations increase by about the same amount …