Latest updates: prime minister says nothing conclusive at the moment showing a need to deviate from road map
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As is usual is politics, the PM’s words can be interpreted in different ways.
ITV’s Romilly Weeks thinks he sounds relatively optimistic.
PM sounding relatively optimistic about effect of Indian variant on unlocking- “I don’t see anything conclusive to say we need to deviate from the road map”
PM May 18: We’re looking v carefully at the data & trying to work out to what extent the new variant more transmissible “but at moment nothing conclusive to say we have to deviate from road map”
PM May 11: Looking to June 21: “At the moment I’m feeling very positive about it”
Here are some more quotes from the Boris Johnson interview this morning.
It is not somewhere you should be going on holiday, let me be very clear about that.
If people do go to an amber list country – if they absolutely have to for some pressing family or urgent business reason – if they have to go to an amber list country, then please bear in mind that you will have to self isolate, you will have to take tests and do a passenger locator form and all the rest of it but you’ll also have to self isolate for 10 days when you get back and that period of self-isolation, that period of quarantine, will be enforced with fines of up to 10,000.
If you look at what happened with the variant we are talking about, the so-called Indian variant, the B.1.617.2, India was put on the red list before this was even a variant under investigation, let alone a variant of concern.
So we took prompt action and we will continue to take very, very draconian action in respect of all variants coming from wherever around the world.
Partly because we’ve built up such a wall of defences with the vaccination programme, I don’t see anything conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the roadmap.
But we’ve got to be cautious, and we’re keeping everything under very close observation. We’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time.
We’re keeping everything under very, very careful, close review. We’re looking at all the data as it comes in from places like Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford, Sefton and other places – just looking at those curves, where they’re moving, trying to understand whether the Indian variant is more transmissible, and, if so, by how much more it’s transmissible.\
And also trying to understand to what extent our vaccine programme has already sufficiently fortified us all against it.
“At the moment… I don’t see anything conclusive to say that we need to deviate from the roadmap”
PM Boris Johnson says everything is being kept “under close review” but adds “we’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time”
