The BBC’s Political Editor quizzed the Health Secretary on the day Britain saw a 17,000 drop week-on-week in Covid cases. Mr Hancock outlined the pressure the NHS is currently under and added that it was a matter of data regarding a potential end date to the lockdown.
Ms Kuenssberg said: “Everybody wants to know when this will all be over.
“Can you spell out how, if not when, lockdown will be lifted? And if you can’t tell us – why not?”
Mr Hancock replied: “It’s so important to understand where we are right now, we have 37,000 people in hospital with coronavirus.
“There are more people on ventilators than at any time in the pandemic. The pressure on the NHS is huge.
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“Of course, I understand the yearning for people to get out of this but it’s difficult to put a timeline on it because it’s a matter of monitoring the data.”
However, the Health Secretary said ministers were holding discussions about what tiers would replace the lockdown once it is lifted.
He told the press briefing: “We are looking at this question right now and we are looking at the impact that the different tiers had, and we’re also looking at where we found transmission happened.
“That is a question that will be driven by the science.”
“Your body’s immune system is only fully trained up around three weeks after your jab.
“Second, even if you have the protection yourself, we still don’t know whether you can pass coronavirus on to someone else.”
The UK is on track to have vaccinated the 13 million most vulnerable people in the country by the middle of February.
Over 75 percent of the over-80 age group has now received a coronavirus jab in England.
