The UK Education Secretary believes that there is “nothing in the data” to suggest any further restrictions are imminent in England.

Due to meet to discuss the current Covid situation on Wednesday 5 January, Nadhim Zahawi has said he sees no current reason for new measures to be introduced.

England is currently in Plan B, which involves Covid passports to enter large indoor venues and compulsory face masks in indoors settings, however it leaves England the most ‘open’ country of the UK compared with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on 3 January, Mr Zahawi said: “There’s nothing in the data that gives me any concern that we need to go beyond where we are at.

“There’s some really good data from London that it looks like the infection rates are plateauing, if not yet coming down.”

On 2 January, England set a new record for daily Covid-19 cases, with 162,572 new recorded cases.

This has seen the introduction of small measures, such as mandatory face mask wearing for secondary school pupils.

 

Reading Chronicle:

ABove: Education minister Nahim Zahawi

 

However, Mr Zahawi has praised the NHS for their adaptability after fears that up to 25% of workforces in England could be self-isolating at any one time in the near future.

He said: “The NHS is very good at being able to move staff around within the system.

“They have an infrastructure to do that.

“We now have 10,000 more nurses and 3,000 more doctors than we had last year working in the NHS.

“The NHS is very good at sort of making sure that staff shortages are monitored and dealt with pretty well.”

In our local area, case numbers have increased heavily from New Years Day, with rises seen in every borough.

Bracknell Forest saw the most daily cases on 2 January, with 243.

Meanwhile Reading saw 187, West Berkshire 215, Slough 197, Windsor and Maidenhead 202 and Wokingham 237.