UK Covid live: Hancock suggests ‘stress’ was factor in Boris Johnson calling him ‘totally useless’
Latest updates: health secretary refuses to say whether he and PM have spoken about issue, but says it feels like ‘ancient history’
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Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, was touring the broadcast studios on behalf of the government this morning, and he played down suggestions that the final coronavirus restrictions for England might be lifted before 19 July.
Today was the day when those restrictions were due to go before Boris Johnson announced a four-week delay last week. Johnson did say there was a chance of this only being a two-week delay, if the data improved significantly, but at the time this sounded more like a rhetorical sop to anti-lockdown Tory MPs than a description of something that might actually happen.
I would always err on the side of caution and I would look to July 19. It could be before but I think that is unlikely. Generally we have stuck to the dates we have set. I think now I am very focused on July 19.
Flu could be a bigger problem than Covid-19 in the UK this winter, a senior government vaccine adviser has said, with low prevalence over the past months possibly leading to a drop in immunity among the population. My colleague Damien Gayle has the story.
Related: Flu could be ‘bigger problem than Covid in UK this winter’
Read the original article at The Guardian