Manchester mayor fears winter of lockdown as UK govt defends under-fire Covid strategy

A UK cabinet minister believes it’s “too early to say” how people will be able to celebrate Christmas this year, with the mayor of Manchester fearing his city will be trapped in a tier-three lockdown throughout the winter.

Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday morning, Environment Secretary George Eustice said it was too soon to tell what the Covid situation will look like at Christmas and how different parts of the country will be impacted.

“Obviously checking the spread of this virus is paramount, but alongside that we want people to live their lives as close to normal as possible, including at Christmas which is an incredibly important time for families,” Eustice noted.

The minister also reiterated remarks made by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Tuesday, suggesting that a vaccine won’t be ready by Christmas and dashing hopes that life may return to normal this winter.

Always with a vaccine, you don’t know precisely what level of protection it will deliver... There’s always a lot of doubt and uncertainty with vaccines.

The environment secretary argued that the government’s three-tiered system was the right approach for the UK and stated they would stick to the plan, despite calls from opposition parties for a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown.

Earlier in October, Labour Leader Kier Starmer was one of many to call on the government to introduce a national lockdown, claiming Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “lost control of the virus” and saying the UK could “sleep-walk into a long and bleak winter.” 

Also speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham slammed the government’s strategy, warning that the health situation in his city would not improve by Christmas.

The fear is we’re trapped in tier three and could be for the remainder of the winter.

The mayor added that the current measures are not enough to bring Covid infections down, and that there was no clear route for his city to leave the lockdown, which has seen bars and pubs close as well as substantial restrictions on socializing.

The government has already plunged many areas of the UK, including Manchester, into the most severe of local lockdowns as it seeks to slow to the spread of Covid.

On Tuesday, the government recorded 22,885 new infections and 367 deaths over the previous 24 hours.

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