COVID data will determine how quickly UK emerges from lockdown, Hancock says

British govt wary of the impact virus variants from Brazil and South Africa could have
Reuters | February 21, 2021

Two women walk down Regent Street, one of London's main shopping streets, as Britain continues its third Covid-19 lockdown, in London, Britain, January 17, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON:

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government will need to analyse the data as it slowly unlocks from the national Covid-19 lockdown because it is wary of the impact virus variants from Brazil and South Africa could have.

“It is very important to see the impact of steps that we’re taking,” Hancock told Sky News. “We want to set out a roadmap which gives people guidance in terms of how we think we’ll be able to do this. We also absolutely will be vigilant to the data on the way.

“We’ve currently seen other new variants that thankfully there’s very, very, very few of in this country now, but we’ve got to protect against them.”

Join Us

Join Us

strong { float: none; }blockquote { background: #f3f3f3; text-align: center; padding: 20px; position: relative; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.2em; } blockquote::before, blockquote::after { color: black; font-size: 3em; font-family: serif; font-weight: bold; position: absolute; } blockquote::before { content: "“"; left: 10px; top: -10px; } blockquote::after { content: "”"; right: 10px; bottom: -10px; }strong.location-names { height: 22px; }.sidebar-blog.widget-spacing { top: 0 !important; }.storypage-social-bottom { display: block !important; }.parnter-info span { display: none; } sidebarblog-withthumbnail .sidebarblog-caption h3, .sidebarblog-withthumbnail .sidebarblog-caption p:first-child { font-size: 18px; font-family: georgia, sans-serif !important; }h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, ul.sidebarblog-withthumbnail h3 { text-shadow: none !important; }.sidebarblog-withthumbnail .sidebarblog-caption h3, .sidebarblog-withthumbnail .sidebarblog-caption p:first-child { font-size: 19px; font-family: georgia,sans-serif; }.sidebarblogmain-img h3 { font-size: 22px; line-height: 23px; }@media screen and (max-width: 767px) { span.story-text p, span.story-text p a { font-size: 20px; } }.story-inner-caption, .story-leftside-relateditems.related-comp h2, span.branding, span.branding.video-branding-flex-cta-item { color: #000 !important; } .navbar-wrapper { max-height: 40px; }ul.logo-links li, ul.logo-links li a, .story-leftside-relateditems.related-comp h2, .story-leftside-relateditems.related-comp h3, .tbl-ccpa, .tbl-ccpa-right { color: black !important; } ul.sidebarblog-withthumbnail { min-height: 300px !important; } /* Hide Google anchor ads */ ins.adsbygoogle[data-anchor-status] { display: none !important; height: 0 !important; visibility: hidden !important; } html { /* Old-school fallback (forces scrollbar space even if not needed) */ overflow-y: scroll; /* Modern browsers (reserves scrollbar gutter space without showing a disabled scrollbar) */ scrollbar-gutter: stable; } .w-button { display: none !important; }@media only screen and (min-width: 1024px) { span.top-big-img .featured-image-global img { width: 100% !important;max-width: 100%; } }p:empty { display: none; }@media only screen and (min-width: 1024px) { div#google_ads_iframe_\/11952262\/tribune-business-print-story-2_0__container__ { max-height: 90px !important; overflow: hidden; } } .sidebarblog-img .featured-image-global { aspect-ratio: 165 / 106; /* for thumbnails */ } .sidebar-social-icons ul li a { display: inline-block; width: 32px; height: 32px; } span.comment-time { color: black; } span.comment-time { color: black; }.storypage-rightside .featured-image-global { position: relative; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 640 / 480; /* Reserve space for story image */ overflow: hidden; } .storypage-rightside .featured-image-global img { width: 100%; height: 100%; object-fit: cover; display: block; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .storypage-rightside .featured-image-global { aspect-ratio: 412 / 290; } }.storypage-rightside .featured-image-global { background: #f7f6f6; }.horizontal-story-image img { border: #f5f2f2 1px solid; aspect-ratio: 208 / 130; }.story-image img { aspect-ratio: 208 / 130; border: #edebeb 1px solid; } .story-image { width: 37%; aspect-ratio: 208 / 130; }

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or derived from. Unless otherwise stated, all content is copyrighted © 2025 The Express Tribune.

FOLLOW US