Boris Johnson warned on Friday that the United Kingdom was heading towards a second wave of the Coronavirus, as he put the country in the knowledge that major new restrictions may be necessary to address the growing number of infections.
Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have agreed that the second national lockdown will be a disaster for the economy, and they are determined to keep businesses and schools open.
But ministers are considering so-called circuit-breaker measures across England – including restrictions on the hospitality industry – if The most recent rule bans gatherings of more than six people Failed to control the virus.
On Friday, the two authorized governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff called for more coordination at the national level, and the Mayor of London said that additional measures to counter the spread of the Corona virus in the British capital seemed “increasingly likely”.
A report released on Friday by government scientists estimated that new Covid-19 infections are increasing by between 2 percent and 7 percent every day across the UK. And he found that R – the average number of new cases generated by an infected person – was between 1.1 and 1.4.
The government announced New domestic closures It crossed Merseyside and a large part of Lancashire, as well as parts of the Midlands and West Yorkshire, affecting 3.3 million people.
“I don’t think anyone would want to delve into a second [national] Johnson told Sky News.
“ But obviously when you look at what’s going on, you have to wonder if we need to go beyond the six-rule rule that we entered on Monday, so we’re going to look at local lockdowns, and look at what we can do to step up things there to help bring down the rate. Injury – but also by looking at other measures as well. ”
The Prime Minister added that the United Kingdom is now entering a second wave of Coronavirus. “We see it in France, we see it in Spain … it was inevitable – I’m afraid – to see it in this country.”
Labor leader Keir Starmer called on Mr Johnson to chair an urgent meeting of the Governmental Emergency Committee Cobra, saying, “This is the time for swift and decisive national action. We cannot afford to be so slow.”
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a unified approach across the UK after past disagreements over how best to deal with Covid-19.
“I think we need to look at what we need to do to interrupt and break this,” she said. “I want to have discussions in four countries on this topic.”
Her concerns were echoed by Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakford, who said he had had a “short phone call” with Johnson since the end of May.
He added: “All these issues should be discussed at the level of the United Kingdom by the four governments, and work together, but often in this crisis, this opportunity was not available.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Friday evening that It was increasingly likely That additional measures will soon be needed in the capital to address the accelerating speed with which Covid-19 is now spreading there.
He said: “I have a firm view that we should not wait, as happened six months ago, for this virus to get out of control again before taking action.” “The best thing for both public health and the economy is to impose new restrictions early, rather than a complete lockdown when it is too late – but the government must urgently ensure there is a fully functional testing system in place.”
The Labor politician said they would study some measures that have already been imposed in other parts of the UK.
Under the recent local lockdowns in England, families will be barred from meeting indoors in Merseyside and Lancashire except for Blackpool and parts of the Midlands and West Yorkshire from Tuesday.
Restrictions in the northwest include a request for hospitality businesses such as bars and restaurants to close at 10pm.
This means that more than 13 million people, a fifth of the UK’s population, will live under local lockdowns, although restrictions vary from place to place.
On Friday, 4,322 cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in the United Kingdom, taking the total to 385,936.
In England, government scientists estimated the R to be between 1.2 and 1.4, while the rate of new infections was higher in the Midlands, the Northeast and the Northwest.
Health Minister Matt Hancock warned that the country was facing a rise in coronavirus cases and hospital admissions, but he argued that since the vast majority of new transmission was occurring within social settings rather than in schools and workplaces, there was no need to close them.
But he refused to rule out a second national lockdown. The Financial times It was reported Thursday that prominent members of the government’s Sage Scientific Advisory Group and the Pandemic Influenza Scientific Group on Modeling (Spi-m) had proposed a two-week national lockdown to coincide with the October semester.
“The national lockdown is the last line of defense and we want to use local measures, and we want people to follow the rule of six to avoid this,” Hancock told the BBC.
