Britain is considering a second lockdown

The BBC and Sky News reported on Friday that the British government is considering imposing a new nationwide blockade to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, and decisions could be taken as early as next week.

According to them, the blockade can be imposed for a short period, for example in the beginning for a period of two weeks, although when the blockade will start and how long it will last are still under discussion. It won’t be as strict as the one introduced at the end of March, as schools and most workplaces will remain open. It was also discussed whether pubs, bars and restaurants would close at this time or only operate with reduced business hours. However, it is almost certain that in such a situation there will be restrictions on visits and meetings of people from different families.

According to the BBC and Sky News, England’s chief physician Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser to the government, Patrick Vallance, warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson Wednesday night that if no action was taken, there could be a significant increase in deaths by the end of October. They were saying the UK was about six weeks behind France and Spain, which are already suffering from the second wave of the pandemic.

Speaking to the House of Commons liaison committee on Wednesday afternoon, Johnson said a second nationwide blockade would be disastrous for the economy.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock, when asked Friday morning about this speculation in the media, did not rule out such a scenario. “The last line of defense is complete patriotic action, and I don’t want that to happen, but we will do everything necessary to keep people safe in this very difficult epidemic. It is not something that we will take off the table. But it is not something we want to see, this is the line of defense.” the last one “.

The current strategy of the British government is to impose local rather than national restrictions, in places where the disease is spreading and there is a significant increase in infections. However, there are more and more local restrictions. They took effect on Friday for almost the entire North East region of England. As was previously introduced in Manchester and the surrounding area, Birmingham and the surrounding area, Leicester, Midwest Scotland, including Glasgow, two counties in Wales and several counties in Northern Ireland, restrictions of various types are now applied in areas with a population of 10 Millions of people. People – in a country with a population of 67 million people.

In addition, and as expected, the government will announce on Friday that it will tighten restrictions or expand its area of ​​application in northwest England.

Autor: PAP