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There could be nationwide restrictions or very extensive local closures in England if there is a second spike in COVID-19 cases this winter, Matt Hancock warned.
The health secretary also said that in a worst-case scenario, the UK could be battling a flu outbreak and growth in coronavirus as people spend more time indoors.
He continued: “Cases are climbing again, and we have to use very extensive local closures or take more national measures. We are not ruling it out, but we do not want to see it.”
Hancock said the social distancing measures would remain for the “foreseeable” future and suggested that, unless a vaccine was approved, grandparents would not be able to hug their grandchildren this Christmas.
“I long to be able to remove restrictions on social contact, but those restrictions are absolutely necessary at this time.
“We will keep them in place in the future. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
Speaking to The Times, Hancock said a second wave could be “avoidable but not easy,” with schools will reopen next week presenting new challenges to stop the spread of the virus.
He said countries in other parts of the world were already experiencing a second spike, adding that it was “a very serious threat.”
But he said the UK was managing to keep the number of new cases “flat” through the track-and-trace system and local closures.
Under the initial lockdown in March, the retail and hotel industries had to shut down across the country.
Boris Johnson has compared the prospect of another national blockade to a “nuclear deterrent.”
The UK government is nhow to encourage workers to return to the offices, with advertisements emphasizing the benefits of returning employees to their workplaces.
The health secretary said a vaccine is likely to be available “sometime next year,” although he hoped this would be sooner.
Before that, he said, the government relied on three “lines of defense” to stop the spread of the coronavirus: social distancing, NHS test and trace, and local lockdowns.
He hoped that these measures, combined with the largest flu vaccination program in history, would ensure that the NHS could cope.
Your comments come as local COVID-19 the restrictions were relieved in the north of england, which will allow for social gatherings between two households starting Wednesday in Bolton, Stockport, Trafford, Burnley, Hyndburn and parts of Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.
Meanwhile, the latest range of R numbers for the UK remains the same as last week at 0.9-1.1, indicating that the infection rate is more likely to be fairly stable or growing slightly.
The R number is a measure of how many people on average each infected person transmits the virus.
The latest growth rate for the entire country is between -2% and 1%, the government said, meaning the number of new infections is between a 2% reduction and a 1% increase each day.
Official government data released on Friday revealed that the UK recorded 1,276 daily confirmed cases of COVID-19, compared to 1,522 the day before.
