Jeremy Hunt claims Covid restrictions should stay until England has fewer than 1,000 per day

Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt claims Covid restrictions should stay in place until England suppresses cases to fewer than 1,000 per day – as SAGE advisers warn against lifting lockdown measures too early

  • Jeremy Hunt said cases needed to drop to below 1,000 a day to relax measures
  • Professor Graham Medley warned ministers shouldn’t be bound by a timetable
  • Government has repeatedly refused to iron out an acceptable infection level 

The Government should not lift brutal lockdown restrictions until England is recording fewer than 1,000 cases a day, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The Ex-Health Secretary urged ministers to take a cautious approach, adding the new variants have ‘changed the game’ from before Christmas.

Department of Health figures show 18,500 cases were announced in England yesterday, an 85 per cent drop from the 34,371 cases recorded two weeks ago. 

A Sage adviser backed Mr Hunt this morning, warning leaders should ‘not be driven by a calendar’ but be mindful of the situation on the ground.

Professor Graham Medley called for ‘adaptive management so you actually change the control of the epidemic as it goes along rather than setting dates’.

It comes as the Government revealed it could get jabs to everyone in their over-50s by May 7, as Britain’s vaccination drive continues to gather steam.

The Cabinet Office disclosed the schedule as it confirmed elections in England will take place on that date – citing the fact the top nine priority groups will have received jabs as a reason to ‘go ahead with these polls with confidence’.

Mr Hunt, who also heads Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee, spoke in a personal capacity when he said ministers should wait until they get below 1,000 cases a day.

‘I think we have to recognise that the game has changed massively over Christmas with these new variants,’ he told The Guardian.

‘And that we mustn’t make the mistake that we made last year of thinking that we’re not going to have another resurgence of the virus.’

He added: ‘I think we need to listen very carefully to scientific advice. I never saw this as economy versus health.

‘The Koreans and the Taiwanese have kept their economy open. Their restaurants are open, because they’ve kept case transmission low, and we just need to do what it takes to get to that point.

‘And for me, where I’m at on that is that you just need to get it down to 1,000 new infections a day or less.’

Ministers have refused to set a figure for how low infections need to dip before they consider lifting restrictions, after admitting England is past the peak of the first wave.