UK ‘at risk’ of third wave of Covid-19 in January unless proper balance is struck

The UK is at risk of a third wave of coronavirus infections in January unless it gets the right balance of restrictions, a cabinet minister warned.

And Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who replaced Boris Johnson to lead the government’s response to Covid-19 when the prime minister was in hospital, told the BBC that he would not rule out a third national shutdown to combat another wave. of the virus.

When asked if a third wave was a possibility, he said: “There is a risk of that happening if we don’t get the balance right. But so far the R level is going down, that’s really important.

And that’s why we started with the tiered approach, more restrictive than some people would like, but allowing us to relax, but only when … “

Host Andrew Marr chimed in, asking if, if the government doesn’t get the “behavior” it wants now and over Christmas, there could be another national lockdown in the new year.

Mr. Raab replied: “We are doing everything possible to avoid that.”

When asked if he would support a new lockdown if it happened, Raab did not rule it out.

He said: “It is progressing well. I explained the government’s exit strategy, frankly, from the current set of restrictions.”

It comes after Boris Johnson warned that there will be “disastrous consequences” for the NHS without the introduction of new tiered coronavirus restrictions when the national lockdown ends next week.

The prime minister, facing a Commons showdown with his own MPs over the strict measures, urged the nation to “work together” on grading, testing and vaccines.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he stressed that it was too early to relax the restrictions, but said he believed Easter would mark a “real opportunity to return to something close to normal life.”

Johnson said: “We can’t screw it up now. We can’t just throw it all away, not when freedom is in sight. We’ve worked too hard, lost too many, sacrificed too much, only to see our efforts incinerated in another volcanic eruption of the virus. ..

“We are so close to our captivity. We can see the sunlit highland pastures later on. But if we try to jump the fence now, we will just get tangled in the last barbed wire, with disastrous consequences for the NHS.”