UK ministers are drawing up emergency plans for local lockdowns or a delay to the final stage of lockdown easing on June 21 in response to the spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus.
Under plans modelled on England’s tier system of last year, people would be advised to stay at home and non-essential shops and hospitality venues would be closed if the variant was not brought under control.
Businesses in areas subject to restrictions would receive grants of up to £18,000 ($25,440) and the scheme would be administered by local authorities and adjusted according to the length of the shutdown.
Ministers have not ruled out delaying the final stage of the road map out of lockdown June 21, when most social distancing restrictions are due to end.
In this scenario, grants would be made available for the worst-affected sectors, such as nightclubs, and for large events including festivals.
Sources told The Times newspaper that Prime Minister Boris Johnson regards local lockdowns as a "last resort" if other measures, such as surge testing and increasing deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines, failed to contain the spread of the variant.
Mr Johnson insisted on Tuesday the “wall of defences” built up by the vaccination programme meant there was nothing "conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the road map”.
"We’ve got to be cautious and we are keeping everything under very close observation," he said.
“We’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time.”
Asked if local lockdowns were likely, Environment Secretary George Eustice said “that would be an option”.
“We cannot rule anything out at this stage," he told Sky News.
"Our preferred outcome is that we really double down on vaccination rates, then we won't have to have any local lockdowns."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock also refused to rule out the prospect of local lockdowns.
“It is not where we want to go,” he told the House of Commons on Monday.
“Of course we don’t rule it out, but we have seen the approach that we are taking works.”
Downing Street confirmed that Mr Johnson had abandoned next week’s expected announcement that fines for not wearing face masks would end next month, and businesses would no longer be compelled to keep people at least a metre apart.
Government figures show there are now 2,323 confirmed cases of the Indian variant in the UK, of which 483 were in Bolton and in the Blackburn with Darwen area.
Cases in those north-west England areas have doubled in the past week, with 19 people in Bolton in hospital with the variant and eight in Blackburn. It is now the dominant strain in the area.
Mr Hancock said most of those in hospital with the Indian strain had not been vaccinated.
“Most of them could have been vaccinated, which is frustrating to see, but is also a message to everyone,” he said.
“It just reinforces the message that people should come forward and get vaccinated because that is the best way to protect everybody.”
Over the weekend, the rate of vaccination in Bolton quadrupled, with 6,200 people receiving injections.
“This is the biggest surge of resources into any specific local area we have seen in the pandemic so far,” Mr Hancock said.
But Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South East, said the government was too slow to act.
“We should employ the use of surge vaccinations where possible and it was disappointing that the government refused to allow Bolton Council’s health officials express permission to roll out the vaccine to younger age groups, despite the clear need to do so,” she said.
There was growing anger that those refusing to receive the vaccine could jeopardise Britain’s plans to end lockdown.
However, Prof Steven Riley from Imperial College London said it was unhelpful to criticise those who could be unvaccinated for “lots of reasons”, arguing it was better to highlight the benefits of receiving the shot.
"If you look two or three weeks down the road, the decisions made today about choosing to have a vaccine will directly help them," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Prof Riley said the variant was introduced to the UK while travel between the UK and India remained open.
“We know it generated some large clusters and large outbreaks,” he said.
“We need a bit of time so the effect of those initial introductions calms down and we can see what the local transmission looks like.”
