UK PM’s position not too weak to impose further COVID-19 restrictions -Javid

LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not too politically weak to bring in further COVID-19 restrictions if necessary, health minister Sajid Javid said on Sunday.

Johnson is facing the biggest crisis of his premiership after a litany of scandals and missteps, and earlier this week more than 100 of his own lawmakers voted against the government’s latest measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

Asked on BBC Television if Johnson was too weak to bring in any further restrictions, Javid said: “No, I don’t think that’s the case … if the government felt that further action had to be taken of course we would present that to parliament and it would be for parliament to decide.”

Meanwhile Javid said that the British government is monitoring the latest COVID-19 data on an almost hourly basis and will do whatever is necessary to tackle the spread.

Javid said analysis of the data suggested around 60% of all new COVID-19 cases in England are the fast-spreading Omicron variant, but the country was in a better position than last Christmas thanks to things such as vaccinations and testing.

Asked about reports of possible further measures, Javid said: “We will do what is necessary but it has got to be backed up by the data … we are watching the data, discussing it with our scientists and our best advisers almost on an hourly basis and we will monitor that very carefully we will keep the situation under review.”

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Jason Neely)