Boris warns of Covid ‘tough times’ ahead but insists ‘the end’ is in sight in New Year message

Boris Johnson warned of ‘tough times’ ahead  in the fight against Covis today – but insisted ‘the end of the journey’ was in sight as he looked forward to 2021.

In his New Year message the Prime Minister insisted that the next 12 months would see Britons ‘eventually do those everyday things that now seem lost in the past’ as vaccines help life return to normal.

He also voiced his hope that Brexit would allow the UK to do things ‘better’ than the EU, after it leaves at 11pm tonight.

Britain quits the block this evening after four-and-a-half bitter years of politics and division since the EU referendum.

The Prime Minister reflected on the past 12 months during which ‘we lost too many loved ones before their time’ because of the pandemic.

But he said a ‘spirit of togetherness’ was rediscovered in 2020, in which people ‘pulled the stops out to keep the country moving in the biggest crisis we have faced for generations’.

His comments came as Britain today declared a record high of 55,892 coronavirus cases and almost 1,000 more deaths, leading to fears of Covid restrictions until next summer.

Government scientists warned even a March-style national lockdown with schools mainly closed might not be enough to hold the coronavirus R rate below one.  

In his New Year message the Prime Minister insisted that the next 12 months would see Britons ‘eventually do those everyday things that now seem lost in the past’ as vaccines help life return to normal.

Voicing his hope of a ‘an open, generous, outward looking, internationalist and free trading global Britain’ in a message recorded in Downing Street, Mr Johnson said: ‘2021 is the year we can do it, and I believe 2021 is above all, the year when we will eventually do those everyday things that now seem lost in the past.

‘Bathed in a rosy glow of nostalgia, going to the pub, concerts, theatres, restaurants, or simply holding hands with our loved ones in the normal way.

‘We are still a way off from that, there are tough weeks and months ahead.

‘But we can see that illuminated sign that marks the end of the journey, and even more important, we can see with growing clarity how we are going to get there.’

Mr Johnson praised scientists who produced the world’s first effective treatment for coronavirus, as well as those who worked on the Oxford vaccine.

He said: ‘We know that we have a hard struggle still ahead of us for weeks and months, because we face a new variant of the disease that requires a new vigilance.

‘But as the sun rises tomorrow on 2021 we have the certainty of those vaccines.’

Referencing the end of the Brexit transition period, the Prime Minister said the UK would be ‘free to do things differently, and if necessary better, than our friends in the EU’ in 2021.

He said the UK will ‘work with partners around the world, not just to tackle climate change but to create the millions of high-skilled jobs this country will need not just this year – 2021 – as we bounce back from Covid, but in the years to come.

‘This is an amazing moment for this country. We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.

‘And I think it will be the overwhelming instinct of the people of this country to come together as one United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland working together to express our values around the world.’

Two thirds of England’s population – around 44million people – is now in Tier 4, with the remainder living in Tier 3 lockdowns. Only the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, is in the looser Tier 2

A grim assessment from SAGE today warned that the new variant behind the spiralling coronavirus second wave appears so much more contagious that the blanket restrictions imposed in November would be ‘highly unlikely’ to contain the spread. 

Closing schools to all but the children of key workers and the vulnerable, as happened in the Spring, could bring the crucial reproduction rate down further but it is still ‘not known’ whether it would succeed in suppressing the outbreak.

The dire picture was revealed as Department of Health bosses posted the highest number of positive tests in a day since the disease first reached British soil in January. Officials also announced 964 deaths, following on from yesterday’s grim figure of 981, which was the deadliest day since April.

The SAGE lockdown warning came from minutes from a meeting of the top scientists on December 22, shortly after Boris Johnson announced the existence of the Covid mutation and tore up plans for Christmas ‘bubbles’. Other papers suggest ministers could reinstate the hard two-metre social distancing rule that was eased to one-metre plus to help keep businesses afloat, and ‘mandate’ more mask-wearing. 

The evidence will fuel concerns that the country is now doomed to brutal Tier curbs until at least the spring and potentially even into summer 2021, with even that timeline assuming that the vaccine roll-out goes to plan. 

And the programme, which must vaccinate two million people per day as soon as possible, is already facing hitches with retired health workers trying to volunteer to help with the roll-out getting put off by government red tape as scientists say it’s impossible to know when the vaccine programme will make it safe to end lockdown.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said he expects Britain to continue its relentless cycle of lockdowns into the middle of next year, saying on BBC Radio 4 this morning: ‘It is going to be a very, very difficult few months until we get, hopefully, relief as we move from spring into summer when many people will have been vaccinated and the warmer weather will be here.’

Speculation about widespread school closures is growing after ministers confirmed that children of all ages will be kept home in the hardest hit areas, despite concerns from politicians and experts that keeping them off school will do more damage in the long run – scientists say keeping schools open will make it near impossible to stop the virus in some places.