Javid says no to restrictions – for now

Is the government considering activating its ‘plan B’ Covid plans? Not yet. 

After the Business Secretary played down talk of new restrictions this morning, Sajid Javid used today’s press conference to confirm that he would not be implementing the back-up plan ‘at this point’. However, the Health Secretary suggested that further measures – namely vaccine passports, work-from-home orders and mask mandates – could not be ruled out if the data substantially worsens.

There was a marked change in tone from Javid since the days soon after his appointment as Health Secretary when he declared that there was ‘no going back’. He said that the pandemic is far from over, and that while the link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths has been weakened thanks to vaccines, it has not been broken. Warning that cases could rise to 100,000 a day, Javid said the government would make sure that pressure on the NHS is not ‘unsustainable’.