Health Secretary to warn face masks and working from home could return

20 October 2021, 13:53

By Naomi Bartram

@naomibartram

Government press conference today: What time is it and what will be said? Here's what we know...

Sajid Javid will give a major press conference today as Covid cases, deaths and hospital admissions continue to rise in the UK.

According to reports, the Health Secretary will advise all over 50s who are eligible to get their Covid booster jabs this winter to book their third dose of the vaccine.

This is part of the government bid to get as many people as possible fully vaccinated as infection rates increase across the country.

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The Sun reports that Sajid Javid will warn that activating ‘Plan B’ would mean face masks, working from home, and vaccine passports could be brought in this winter.

What time is the press conference today?

The government press conference is set to take place at 5pm, and will be the first one in five weeks.

It comes as the UK’s daily Covid cases have risen quickly in recent weeks, staying above 40,000 for seven days in a row.

Another 223 deaths were recorded on Tuesday, which is up from 181 a week earlier and the highest since March.

But the government has ruled out a return to full national lockdowns, with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng saying these restrictions won’t return.

He said any calls for another lockdown are ‘unhelpful’ and insisted Brits should be looking forward to more normal Christmas this year.

Mr Kwarteng said: “What we want to do is manage the situation as it is. We don't want to go back into lockdown or into further restrictions.

"We just want to keep going, keep the economy going, keep people, getting back to normal life.

"We've had our lock downs, we've managed to reopen the economy, and I don't want to revert back."

He added: "There was always going be a risk the infection rates would go up as we opened up the economy.

"Of course there is the risk of greater infections, but the critical thing is looking at the hospitalisation and sadly death rates.

"And those compared to where we were just in January are much much lower.

"It’s still a difficult situation but it’s a much much better situation than it was just 4/5 months ago when we were still in the middle of a lockdown."