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World Passes 100 Million COVID-19 Cases as Vaccine Inequality Undermines Response; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Holds Press Conference on New COVID-19 Restrictions. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 27, 2021 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNNI HOST: I am Becky Anderson. Welcome to what's our expanded edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. I want to get you to London, where

the U.K. prime minister, Boris Johnson, will walk soon to the microphone at 10 Downing Street.

He is expected to talk more about what are these new tough restrictions announced today, including a requirement for certain travelers to

quarantine in hotels for 10 days at their own expense upon arrival in Britain.

Mr. Johnson is under pressure to do more to combat coronavirus after the death toll soared over 100,000 people in the U.K. Salma Abdelaziz joins us

from London and Anna Stewart is at Heathrow Airport.

Let's start with you, Salma. Sobering statistics behind these numbers, 100,000 people that have lost their lives. Clearly the U.K. government has

decided that more needs to be done.

So what do we know at this point?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: We know prime minister Boris Johnson, in taking this press conference and addressing this, that he needs to start

answering some questions. He faced tough criticism in Parliament today over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

It's important to remember 100,000 deaths, that makes the U.K. one of the highest mortality rates in the world.

How did the country reach that situation?

It is key to say that this death toll is not proportionate. Most victims are among the poor, among the elderly, among people of color in this

community, key workers, not just doctors and nurses, but people driving buses and running corner shops.

Questions are going to be asked as to how you will protect the community's most vulnerable, those at the highest risk, what is being done. The prime

minister will point to the vaccination program. There will be updates there.

You have over 6 million of the country's most vulnerable that are vaccinated but that needs to happen more quickly and millions more need to

be vaccinated before restrictions can be eased and lifted.

We also expect the prime minister to address those restrictions.

How long will the lockdown be in place?

It has been extended now.

When will rules be reviewed?

And schools, a lot of parents here are waiting for information.

When will schools reopen?

Another delay on that matter. So a lot of questions, Becky, and I don't know if the prime minister will answer all of these questions today. But he

is going to point to the vaccination program, try to give a positive sense of how that is progressing, say that it is on track and also give the bad

news.

Everyone is under restrictions, under these rules, for a long time, Becky.

ANDERSON: OK. We're just seeing the scientific adviser, the chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and England's deputy chief medical

officer, Jonathan Van-Tam. This is the prime minister.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: -- measured not only in the tragic loss of life that we've endured with over 100,000 deaths and, once again, I

offer my condolences to the families of friends and friends of everybody who's lost loved ones.

But I'm afraid we must also remember not just the damage to the economy but the last weeks and months of education and the real risk of damage to the

prospects of our young people.

And so I share very much the frustration of pupils and teachers, who today want nothing more than to get back to the classroom. And I understand the

stress and the anxieties of parents coping heroically with the pressures of homeschooling.

I know that everybody across the country wants us to get schools open as fast as possible. And I can assure you that is the ambition of this

government.

But I also know, we all know, that we're 37,000 people in hospital suffering from COVID. And the infection rate's still forbiddingly high.

You, we all, must be cautious. And we all want only to open schools when we can be sure that this will not cause another huge surge in the disease

because the problem is not that schools are unsafe.

Teachers and head teachers have worked heroically to make sure that they are safe.

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JOHNSON: They are COVID secure. The problem is that, by definition, schools bring many households together.

And that contributes to the spread of the virus within the community and drives up the (INAUDIBLE) and so it follows that, if we're to get schools

open and keep them open, which is what we all want, then we need to be clear about certain things.

We need to be sure that the vaccine rollout is continuing to be successful, as it is. Most important, we need to see the impact of our vaccines on

those graphs of mortality. We need to see that they really are saving lives and preventing people from becoming seriously ill.

Now we're confident that that will happen and the vaccines will have that effect. But to be responsible, we must see the proof. And our current

estimates say that the proof will only become visible in the middle of February.

And since we need to give schools two weeks notice to reopen, it is sensible now to serve notice that we will not be able to reopen schools

immediately after half term on February the 22nd.

But if we continue to make the progress that we want to see and that we believe we can see, then we hope to begin opening schools on Monday, March

the 8th.

And to help parents and teachers with this extended period of remote learning, we will extend the arrangements for providing free school meals

for those eligible children not in school, including food parcels and the national voucher scheme, until those pupils have returned to the classroom.

And as we did this financial year, we will provide a catch-up program over the next financial year with a further 300 million pounds of new money to

schools for tutoring.

And we'll work with the education sector to develop, wherever appropriate, specific initiatives for summer schools, as well as a COVID premium for

catch-up and support pupils to catch up.

We will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure that pupils, all pupils, have the chance to make up their

learning over the course of this Parliament. So we tackle that issue of differential learning and kids who may have fallen behind through no fault

of their own.

And so with every jab that goes in, we're becoming more confident that we will reach our target of offering a first dose to everyone in the top four

priority groups by the middle of February.

And at that moment, we will be able to review our progress, judge the state of the pandemic and the effectiveness of the vaccine and then, in the week

beginning the 22nd of February, we will set out our plan, not just for reopening our schools but gradually to reopen our economy and our society

and to get our lives back to as close to normal as possible.

Now this will be a timetable that is inevitably going to be subject to adjustment. But I believe it will provide clarity and certainty about the

way ahead, a road map that we can take together and use as a country to defeat the virus and begin steadily to reclaim our lives.

Thank you very much. I'm now going to hand over to Patrick, to Sir Patrick Vallance, chief scientific advisor, who is going to say a bit about the

vaccines.

PATRICK VALLANCE, U.K. CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: Just to give you an update on where things are with the epidemic -- and Chris did a detailed

one last night -- but there were 25,308 cases picked up through testing and 1,725 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Of course, the case numbers will be higher than that because the testing system only picks up a proportion. So we still are in a position with very

high numbers. The estimates from the ONS survey are still over 1 million people with the disease, with the infection in this country. That's roughly

one in 55 people who still have the infection.

And although things have slowed down -- and actually, we're at a plateau or possibly decreasing across the country -- that's not true everywhere. In

some cases, there are still some increases.

So we are at a position where the lockdowns have worked. They've slowed this down. They've reached a position where it's reached a plateau and is

beginning to decline.

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VALLANCE: And we see that in cases. We're beginning to see it in hospital admissions and we're beginning to see it in deaths.

But it's early days. This isn't coming down quickly. We remain at very high levels and it's going to take weeks for this to start to come down to

really low levels. So it's important that, with that and the rollout of the vaccine program, we start to see this changing, as the prime minister said.

And the vaccine program should start to kick in so we could see effects in the middle of February. But I want to remind us all that we remain in a

difficult position at the moment, with still very high levels.

JOHNSON: Thank you, Patrick. Very, very clear.

Let's go to Gary from Chester.

QUESTION: As great as the vaccine rollout has been in the U.K., how will we know that the vaccines created by other countries are just as effective,

to be able to resume travel again?

China, for instance, has their own vaccine.

If it hasn't been tested or approved, what measures would we need to put in place to ensure free and open travel between countries even after the U.K.

is vaccinated?

JOHNSON: Really good question there, Gary. I think I'm going to put that straight to JVT or Patrick.

JVT, do you want to have a go at that?

And then Patrick?

JONATHAN VAN-TAM, ENGLAND'S DEPUTY CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Yes. Thank you, Prime Minister.

So I think all countries who've suffered during this coronavirus pandemic - - and who now have access to vaccines -- will actually be as keen as we are to understand the impact of vaccines in a true programmatic sense in their

populations.

So I think we will get data from around the world that explains vaccine effectiveness. Here in the U.K., the colleagues at Public Health England

have already linked the national immunization data sets to the testing data.

And I'm hopeful that, within a few weeks' time, there will be the beginnings of some signals about how our vaccine program is being

effective. That signal will begin with infections. But over time, we will get more data on hospitalizations and on deaths.

And I want to make a really important point here, that, although the clinical trials data report headline results in terms of the prevention of

infections with symptoms, in public health terms, what is going to change this for us is reductions in hospitalizations; in severe disease, in other

words.

And we have very real hope that the vaccines, in time, are going to lead the way on this.

Thank you.

VALLANCE: Maybe the only thing to add is it is important that it's not the vaccines, it's the vaccinations that need to happen. And that needs to

happen right the way across the world.

This is a global pandemic and it is important that we see vaccination across the world, especially in countries that perhaps aren't as well

prepared in terms of their vaccine supply, low and middle-income countries, that do need the support to do this. This has to be a global effort to try

and get this disease under control.

JOHNSON: Thanks very much.

Let's go to Henry from Cornwall.

QUESTION: Many clinically vulnerable children have been shielding since the start of the pandemic. Clinically vulnerable children haven't had that

glimmer of hope of a vaccine.

When will children be able to receive a vaccine, without which children, like my daughter, are unable to return to school?

Henry, thank you very much. Let's ask JVT.

VAN-TAM: Yes. So the JCVI advice is that, for children who are extremely at risk, there can be a discussion between their physician and the parents

about the benefits of vaccination in children under the age of 16 years of age.

That would, nevertheless, be use of the vaccines, as they currently stand, in an off-label or off-license way and, therefore, it needs to be a

carefully discussed, individual decision with the physician and the parents.

Nevertheless, it is possible, in exceptional circumstances, to go down that route. However, we are some way off from there being clinical trials data

for multiple vaccines, showing that the vaccines are authorized for use in children.

I believe that will come, in time, from a number of manufacturers. But at the moment, we wait for some of those trials either to finish or to be

conducted.

JOHNSON: Thanks very much, Jonathan.

And thank you, Henry.

Laura Coons Berg, BBC.

QUESTION: Thank you, Prime Minister.

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QUESTION: You've named a hoped-for date, now extending the lockdown by another few weeks.

Well, how do you rate the chances of being able to stick to the 8th of March for the beginning of the end of this lockdown?

And, Prime Minister, can ask you to respond to the E.U.'s seeming demand for some of the U.K.'s vaccine?

JOHNSON: Laura, the date of the 8th of March is the earliest that we think it's sensible for -- to set for schools to go back. And, obviously, we hope

that all schools will go back.

And the reason we say it's the earliest is for the reasons I've given, that we've got to give a certain amount of time for all of the -- that those

four cohorts, that the JCVI, wonderful groups of vulnerable elderly people, to get the level of immunity that they need, that's got to be in from

February the 15th, if you see what I mean.

And then we also need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine in driving those numbers of deaths down and reducing a serious

disease. And, again, we won't know that until the middle of February.

So I'm hopeful. But that's the earliest that we can do it. And it depends on lots of things going right in.

I'm sure Patrick and Jonathan would agree with me in this. It also depends on us all now, continuing, above all, to work together, to drive down the

incidence of the disease through the basic methods that we've used throughout this pandemic, of trying to avoid transmission by physical

contact, washing our hands and all the rest of it, staying at home, protecting the NHS, all that is absolutely crucial if we're to make that

date as well.

And on your point, to your question about the E.U. and our friends and partners there, all I can say is that we're very confident in our

suppliers. We're very confident in our contracts and we're going ahead on that basis. Thank you very much, Laura.

Carl and JTV.

QUESTION: Thank you, Prime Minister.

You've always been clear that reopening schools is your priority.

Are you just looking at reopening schools, hopefully on the 8th of March?

Or do you think other restrictions could be eased then as well?

Or how much longer after that do you think it might take to start easing other restrictions?

I'd also like to ask Sir Patrick, if I may, what would you expect the effect of the vaccine to be on the transmission of the virus?

And one also for Professor Van-Tam, if I may, can you just talk us through how schools can both be vectors of transmission and also safe places to be?

JOHNSON: Thanks, Carl.

Well, obviously schools are the priority. They remain the priority. But as we make progress in rolling out the vaccine, if all those conditions that I

was talking about earlier -- and I mentioned to Laura -- continued to be satisfied, then, clearly, you will be looking simultaneously at the other

restrictions that we have, what we can do in those sectors as well.

And as I said earlier on, we will be setting out -- I will be setting out, by February the 22nd, more of a route map.

If you remember what we did last year, we were able, after the first phase, to set out some tentative dates by which we hoped to do certain things. And

actually we were pretty much able to keep to those dates.

I'm not saying that we'll be able to keep to all of them. There may be an adjustable element to this timetable. But that's obviously what we'll be

hoping to set out on February 22nd, more of a road map, for everybody to think about.

VALLANCE: In terms of the vaccine effects, it's worth remembering that the vaccines will do a number of things. At the moment, the people that are

receiving them, the idea is to protect those individuals.

So there, we expect the vaccines to be very effective at reducing severe disease and deaths.

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VALLANCE: And the data from the clinical trials are very encouraging on the percentage protection of people ending up in hospital with the disease.

So we've got high level of protection.

In terms of transmission, it's much more difficult to get a handle on that at the moment.

In other words, how likely is it that if you had the vaccine, you would never catch the infection or you couldn't pass it on?

We think there'll be partially effective there. So we think that what will happen is that people will catch infections. There'll be milder infections

that won't cause the same degree of damage in general.

Some people, of course, will still get ill but, on transmission, we'd expect the efficacy to be less than it is on hospitalization, severe

disease and deaths.

And if you look at the data coming out of Israel -- and it's all preliminary -- but they're now talking about 60 percent-plus in terms of

preventing infection. We have to wait and see and it'll vary between vaccines as well, I suspect.

JOHNSON: Thanks, Carl.

ANDERSON: This is all important stuff. We have been listening to the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his advisers, both from science

and medicine.

The prime minister himself saying schools that are currently closed in the U.K. will not open after what is called half-term, midway through February.

But he hopes to open schools on Monday, March 8th. He clarified that is the absolute earliest and went on to suggest certain conditions have to be

fulfilled.

Salma, I want to talk to Anna about quarantine regulations, which weren't discussed in the briefing. Before I do, to you. Much talk about schools,

school closures, when, indeed, the U.K. government believes it will be able to open schools up at a minimum.

These are discussions that are being had all over the world. These are tough times for governments. But it has been particularly difficult in the

U.K. with policy U-turns, it feels, almost on a weekly basis.

Do you feel people in the U.K. will be satisfied by what they heard this evening?

ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely not. Imagine if you're a parent, the frustration you must feel when there's so much mixed messaging. Parents were told

absolutely, schools will return after Christmas holiday; that obviously didn't happen. Now again, yet another delay.

The concerns this is not just on parents and how you balance work from home but development of the children. That's why you heard the prime minister

start by, yes, acknowledging the death toll, acknowledging economic impact and then he quickly said, I have to acknowledge the impact on children, on

their mind and on their education and well-being.

There seem to be more questions than answers in this press conference, the prime minister saying the earliest is March 8th. There are indicators that

need to be improved. He is saying I don't know until mid-February, then I will get a reading of how everything is and we can look at it then.

What are the key indicators?

First and foremost, how many people are vaccinated.

Are the key priority groups vaccinated?

Also does it provide a level of immunity?

And of course, does it keep you from spreading the virus?

So more science needs to be done there. First, the vaccination program. Second, the hospitalization rate.

Are we still looking at a lot of patients in hospitals or have cases come down?

That's a key issue. Third is the death toll.

How are we doing with this variant?

Has there been a grip on the variant not just the one in the U.K. but the ones around the world?

Authorities want to have a grip on variants before they reopen society and schools. So a lot more needs to be done before we get there.

ANDERSON: To be fair, we got an indication from the chief science adviser that we are potentially beginning to see a plateau of some of the key

indicators you rightly pointed out. But this is all caveat. These are early, early indications and clearly don't want to get ahead of themselves

at the moment.

Many questions asked why teachers, for example, aren't in a higher category when it comes to receiving vaccinations. And the question being asked about

how schools can be both vectors of the disease and safe environments.

Kids' education, schools reopening, clearly a huge, huge hot topic in the U.K., which it is, of course, in many other countries around the world.

That is what we got out of the press briefing today.

What we didn't get, Anna, is any further detail on what was announced earlier on today, which is further swingeing regulation for travelers. So

we are looking at a quarantine for, incoming travelers in quarantine hotels, as I understand it, at travelers' expense.

We didn't get an awful lot of detail when the prime minister spoke in Parliament earlier today.

What more do you know at this point?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we were hoping to get more information following the press conference (INAUDIBLE) from 22 high risk

countries. We don't have a list but we assume countries in South America and southern Africa and Portugal, countries where the virus level is very

high.

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STEWART: But also crucially countries with the variants of coronavirus that could jeopardize vaccine rollout here in the U.K., things we don't

know, we don't know when this will be implemented. We don't know who will pay for it; it is widely assumed this comes at the traveler's expense.

It is up to 1,500 pounds for a 10-day quarantine in a hotel. That's a little over $2,000. The countries on the list are already on the travel

ban. So at least initially, Becky, this would only apply to British citizens traveling back home.

What was made clear by the prime minister, any leisure travel right now is illegal. There are going to be more checks at airports and ports by police;

carriers will ask for proof why people are traveling, why they're taking off from Heathrow Airport.

Currently between 8,000 and 10,000 people are still arriving into the U.K. The home secretary wants to see that reduced. These measures not welcomed

by the travel industry. But plenty of people want to see more done. Some want a blanket hotel quarantine for everyone arriving in the U.K.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland wants these measures to go further, they want a cohesive policy across the U.K. But right now, it

doesn't appear there's a lot of agreement. But we do need more detail, perhaps tonight, perhaps next week.

ANDERSON: Anna Stewart is, as you heard, outside Heathrow Airport.

Well done for competing with the sound of a jet there. You did an extremely good job. Thank you because the detail on the issue of quarantine is

important.

And as we get more on that, we will bring that to you.

Salma, let me close out with you. We know that the schools will be closed and will continue to be closed through what is known as half-term holiday

in the U.K. Kids not in school, online, they're continuing the education. Some points made tonight about those kids that simply aren't getting enough

from this virtual classroom, as it were.

The prime minister talking vaguely, it has to be said, about doing more going forward perhaps through summer holidays, for kids to catch up on

education, perhaps a syllabus. We will get more detail on something that we assume has been discussed by media and experts in the U.K., correct?

ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely, Becky. I want to explain why are schools such a focus. That is because, just before Christmas break, the surge in cases

seemed to be among young people, among students. That's why right before Christmas, I visited a school where they were rolling out testing for

students, giving coronavirus tests to the students and teachers.

I spoke to the head teacher, the principal there, she told me, I don't understand why the school is open in the first place. I have a lot of my

staff members, teachers isolating because they have been exposed to COVID- 19. I have a lot of students isolating at home, having to do online learning because they were exposed in some way.

And the other half of my teaching, of students and teachers inside the school. So I am having to do both remote learning and having to do learning

in the classroom. I want to keep schools open.

That's what the head teacher told me. But it doesn't seem possible. And again, this is the concern, these variants that are spreading quickly, were

schools the issue.

If we allow students back, will there be another surge in cases?

Yes, a lot of questions how you handle that, keep that surge from rising again and be able to open schools.

Again, critically, what's the clear instruction?

I met teachers that had to prepare lessons to go online and the classroom and have no idea which it will be in 24 hours. Preparation time needs to be

given to schools so they can handle whatever the requirements and restrictions are.

Yes, this will be a disappointment for students stuck at home since Christmas, for parents working from home, trying to balance both, and for

the country at large. This is yet another setback, Becky.

ANDERSON: Tough times.

Thank you both for joining us and helping us with what was our extended, expanded edition of CONNECT THE WORLD.

I am Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. We are waiting on a White House briefing from the press secretary there. As soon as that happens, we will get you to

that. And to do that, I will pass you to my colleague in Washington, John King, for INSIDE POLITICS. That's after this very brief break. Very good

evening from us in Abu Dhabi.

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