British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said stricter border measures and improved contact tracing appeared to have limited the spread of coronavirus variants from Brazil and South Africa.
Hancock said England’s third national lockdown easing plan, which will be published on Monday, will need to allow time to analyze the data as the government remains concerned that variables could hamper the country’s vaccination progress.
But he said the first signs are encouraging.
“There is evidence that the measures we are taking, whether through improved contact tracing or stricter measures at borders, are working well and that we now have much stronger oversight.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will present the plan on Monday, with a faster-than-expected start to the UK’s vaccination programme.
“It is very important to see the impact of the steps we are taking,” Hancock said. “We want to put in place a plan that will guide people … We will be very vigilant about the data down the road,” he said.
“We’ve already seen other new variants, fortunately there are very, very, very few of them in the country right now, but we need to protect against them,” he added.
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