No10 slaps down Tory calls for 'road map' out of lockdown

A SAGE warning revealing that scientists are only 50% sure the Kent strain of coronavirus could be more deadly was handed to ministers just hours before last night's 'scare-mongering' press conference, it has been revealed. The public will be faced with a set of hard-hitting new adverts warning people to stay home as part of a change of tack in the bid to ensure people obey lockdown rules Boris Johnson and Sir Patrick Vallance said at a Downing Street press conference tonight that the variant of the coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly than the previous version of the virus that it is competing with How deadly is the Kent Covid variant? That is down sharply from last week, when it was between 1.2 and 1.3 Worrying strains around the world: Since the Covid pandemic began there have been at least six new stains which appear more infectious and have mutations that open the door to vaccine resistance The ONS report today said the number of people likely to test positive for coronavirus came down from 1.122million on January 2 to 1.023million on January 16 Passengers wait at Heathrow Airport today as ministers mull even tighter rules The number of people developing Covid-19 every day appears to have halved in a fortnight from 70,000 on January 8 to 34,000 today, according to the Covid Symptom Study, which uses self-reported symptoms through a mobile app used by around a million people Grim figures published today showed government borrowing soared to £34.1billion in December - the third highest monthly figure on record - amid growing fears about the UK's debt mountain Closely-watched PMI data for the private sector showed a reading of 40.6 so far in January - with anything blow 50 pointing to a contraction Has the UK passed the worst of second peak? Kent variant timeline September 20 - Variant emerges in a chronically ill Covid-19 patient in Kent November 6 - Infected person takes the new strain to California November 2020 - Spike in cases occurs in Kent and Medway despite national lockdown squashing case numbers in the rest of the country November 23 - Air passenger brings new variant to Florida December 11 - SAGE tells the Government about the new variant December 14 - Authorities of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland reported to WHO that new SARS-CoV-2 variant was identified through viral genomic sequencing Matt Hancock tells MPs about the new variant December 18 - SAGE tells the Government they are concerned about the new variant and its transmissibility December 20 - London, South East and East of England go into new Tier 4 restrictions due to spike in cases due to new variant December 21 - More than 40 countries halt flights from UK due to new variant December 29 - First case is spotted in the US All dates are for the year 2020 More than 20,000 people have died since January 1 and thousands more will die in the coming weeks even with cases continuing to fall because it can take weeks for infected patients to become severely ill. The new variant will undoubtedly make it slower to take effect and the NHS should expect the same level of pressure, or more, into the middle of February; The impact of the vaccines on the R rate in the UK will be 'modest' by mid-February, and lockdown should only be relaxed when virus prevalence and hospital pressure are both low; It is critical to get 'extremely high' vaccine coverage in vulnerable people before lockdown rules are loosened; If lockdown rules are loosened mid-vaccine rollout there will be another full-blown epidemic with 'very many hospital admissions and deaths'; The Kent variant, also known as B.1.1.7, may be more transmissible because it 'grows well in the airways'; NERVTAG said in December that it expected data on whether Kent variant was more deadly 'in the next few days'; Variants of the virus will very likely emerge, SAGE warns, and this becomes more likely as more people develop immunity and the virus faces pressure to evolve to survive.