Boris Johnson has said there is “no question” tougher measures will have to be imposed to control coronavirus.
Speaking during a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in north London to meet some of the first people to receive the Oxford vaccine on Monday, the prime minister said there were “tough tough” weeks to come.
He said: “If you look at the numbers there’s no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course.”
Matt Hancock on Monday indicated that parts of England under tier 3 restrictions will be upgraded to tier 4.
The health secretary also refused to rule out another national lockdown amid concerns the new variant coronavirus is spreading out of control and the “old tier system is no longer strong enough”.
“This new variant is much easier to catch, it is much more transmissible, and we’re now seeing the effect of that in lots of different parts of the country, unfortunately,” he said.
“And it means that, whereas the old tier 3 was able to contain the old variant, that is proving increasingly difficult in all parts of the country.”
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has demanded a national lockdown be declared within the next 24 hours.
Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory health secretary, also piled pressure on Johnson.
“Time to act: thread on why we need to close schools, borders, and ban all household mixing right away,” he said.
And he warned that the pressures facing hospitals are “off-the-scale worse” than previous winter crises.
Despite concerns over the rise in infections, the government has insisted it remains safe for primary schools to reopen in all but the worst-hit areas of England following the Christmas holiday.
But the prime minister is coming under pressure from unions in the education sector to order a “pause” in a return to the classroom until the safety of staff and pupils can be guaranteed.
It comes as the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine began, with 82-year-old Brian Pinker becoming the first person to receive the jab outside of clinical trials.