[ad_1]
‘Following the rules is absolutely vital to protect life’ – secretary of health
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky’s Kay Burley that the new rules won’t go into effect until Monday because “everyone in the country needs to know what they are.”
“We need to take this action. We have seen an increase in cases,” he says.
“We need everyone to see the new rules and read them, so it will go into effect on Monday.
“All the people of the country must know what they are so that together we can control the virus.
“Complying with the rules is absolutely vital to protecting life.”
Hancock says there are signs of a second wave in Europe and the UK is “determined to take action” to reduce infections.
“We have seen that across Europe there is a second wave that many countries have experienced,” he says.
“Some of those countries have controlled the second wave. If you look at what happened in Belgium, they saw an increase and then they reduced it, whereas in France and Spain that just has not happened.”
He continues: “Everyone understands how important it is that together we keep this under control. We cannot do it individually due to the nature of the disease,” he continues.
“It is incredibly important that everyone follows these new rules.
“We will bring a strict application so that they can be followed.”
And he adds: “We have introduced these changes for a very good reason, and the reason is, as can be seen in other countries, if there is an increase in the number of cases and no action is taken, then that inexorably leads to more hospitalized people more people dying from coronavirus.
“We need to overcome this coronavirus with minimal impact on people’s education and work; that’s why we exempt them from these new rules.
“But it does mean that when it comes to socializing, we unfortunately have to implement rules because our contact tracing system, which is now excellent, shows that most of the transmission of this disease occurs in social circumstances.”
About a vaccine, he says: “We will only introduce one when it is safe and we will go through that process, because we want to come up with a vaccine that is safe and effective as quickly as possible.”
Hancock says the Oxford vaccine trial hiatus isn’t necessarily a setback and that he has already overcome one of those delays.
“Obviously, it is a challenge for this particular vaccine,” he says.
“This is not actually the first time that this has happened to the Oxford vaccine and it is a standard process in clinical trials.”
When asked if it’s a setback, Hancock responds, “Not necessarily, it depends on what they find when they do the research.
“There was a hiatus in early summer and it was resolved without a hitch.”
