UK coronavirus variant ‘may be more deadly’: What now for the UK?
Posted on January 23rd, 2021
BBC Newsnight
Early evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. How does this affect the road out of lockdown?
However, there remains huge uncertainty around the numbers – and vaccines are still expected to work. The virus’s reproduction rate is estimated to be at or below one for the first time since early December – which means the epidemic is shrinking in the UK. So what does this mean for the UK? Could we see travel restrictions imposed due to the new transmissibility of the new variant? How does this affect the road out of lockdown? Newsnight’s Policy Editor Lewis Goodall reports.