By Ben Kerrigan-
British Ministers are meeting to discuss whether more areas of England should be placed under the toughest coronavirus restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of Covid-19.
Westminster is concerned that the variant of the coronavirus is needs further control to prevent it spreading further across the Uk.
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said No 10 would make a judgement on whether the current rules were strong enough.
He said there was no immediate plan to widen curbs on Boxing Day but “the number of cases is rising”.
The UK’s chief scientific adviser has called for extra curbs could be needed. Sir Patrick Vallance told a Downing Street briefing on Monday that measures could “need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced”.
The latest restrictions which placed London and large parts of south-east England under new tier four rules were due to be reviewed on 30 December.
However, the Covid operations committee, chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, are meeting to discuss the tiered system.
Mr Jenrick said they were “trying to retain the robust tiered system” which takes a “proportionate approach” across the country, but said it had been designed before the new variant became apparent.
He said: “The variant is spreading to other parts of the country, so we will see whether it’s necessary to do more and make sure that the tiered system is sufficiently robust for the new circumstances.
“The tiered system was designed before we knew the full ferocity of the new variant, and so we do have to make sure it’s sufficiently robust to be able to withstand this and to stop cases just rising at the very worrying levels they are now in parts of the country.”
Prof Neil Ferguson, whose scientific modelling led to the March lockdown, said the new variant is “everywhere now” but said he anticipated that tier four restrictions and stricter rules over Christmas elsewhere could have a beneficial impact.
He told the Commons Science and Technology Committee: “Schools are now shut, we are in a near-lockdown situation across the country. Contact rates are lower over Christmas.
“I expect, though I hesitate to make any sort of predictions, we will see a flattening of the curve in the next two weeks. We will see at least a slowing of growth.
“The critical question is what happens in January and the extent we want to make public health measures more uniform across the country if the new variant is everywhere.”
On Tuesday, a further 36,804 people in the UK tested positive for the virus and there were 691 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to government figures.
It is the largest daily number of cases recorded yet, though it is thought the infection rate was higher during the first peak in spring when testing was much more limited.