A man wearing a face mask cycles past a hotel in London, Britain, Jan. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that the government is mulling measures to require arrivals into Britain to quarantine in hotels amid concerns over new coronavirus variants from abroad.
"We have to realize there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in. We've got to be able to keep that under control," Johnson said at a vaccination site in north London.
"We want to make sure that we protect our population, protect this country against reinfection from abroad. That idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we're actively now working on," he said.
"We need a solution that gives us the maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad," he added.
Meanwhile, Johnson said the British government will be "looking at the potential of relaxing some measures" before mid-February when the top four priority groups covering around 13 million people are expected to be vaccinated.
"We're looking at the data as it comes in, we're looking at the rates of infection, as you know the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) groups one to four will be vaccinated by Feb. 15," he said.
"Before then we'll be looking at the potential of relaxing some measures...But don't forget this country has made huge progress in reducing infection. I don't think people want to see another big surge in infection," he added.
His remarks came after Britain recorded another 30,004 coronavirus cases and 610 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday.
England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
