The Prime Minister offered the jarring update to Britons as more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded for the sixth day in a row. He said he was “fully reconciled” to rolling out stricter rules “in many parts of the country” in a bid to control infections.
Express.co.uk conducted a poll asking readers if they would support Mr Johnson in slapping new measures on millions of people to fight the soaring number of COVID-19 cases.
Nearly six in 10 respondents (59 percent; 2,869) said they would back the Prime Minister to introduce another level of even tougher measures.
Four in 10 readers (1,859) said ministers should not resort to Tier 5 rules.
Just one percent (39) said they didn’t know.
In comments, many readers who took part said it was high time a new set of rules was rolled out to clamp down on those behaving as if there is not pandemic at all.
One person said the strictest of measures should be introduced and remain in place until a large amount of the population has been vaccinated.
A second person went as far as to suggest people’s movements should be tracked to deter them from venturing too far from home.
And a third said if it wasn’t for rule breakers, the coronavirus crisis would be under control by now.
READ MORE: Starmer demands Boris put ENTIRE country under lockdown within 24hrs
One reader said: “We have had lockdowns of various tiers for the last nine months and none of them has done any good.”
Another wrote: “Tiers don’t work very well because a lot just ignore them.
“It would take a severe curfew for a week with soldiers in control to stop the rulebreakers.”
During an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning, Mr Johnson was quizzed about the possible introduction of more restrictions.
He warned: “It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. I’m fully, fully reconciled to that.
“And I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that because, until the vaccine really comes on stream in a massive way, we’re fighting the virus with the same set of tools.”
On Sunday the UK recorded 54,990 Covid cases and 454 deaths.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for a national lockdown to be introduced within 24 hours, saying the virus is “clearly out of control”.
The poll ran from 12.50pm to 6.50pm on Sunday, January 3, with a total of 4,758 people taking part.
