A second national coronavirus lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus is not "inevitable," the UK's housing minister Robert Jenrick told the BBC on Thursday.
When asked whether the UK will be going towards a national lockdown as France and Germany announced on Wednesday, Jenrick said, "I don't think anything is inevitable," adding that "if we all take action in our own daily lives that will help to tilt the balance in favor of our current approach, which is taking action in places where the virus is most concentrated and avoiding some of the actions you see happening in continental Europe."
The minister defended the UK government's "regionalized approach" to try and contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, saying that a national lockdown "should be reviewed as a last resort."
"The judgement that we're making today is that if we follow the regionalized approach, we've got a good prospect of getting this under control," Jenrick said. "Because the alternative, we know, is very destructive and damaging to people's livelihoods."
"If we go for a full national lockdown, it may not be for a short period of time as someone has suggested," he added.
The UK government introduced a three-tier system of restrictions this month, with the worst affected areas facing the tightest measures to control the spread of the virus.