SHORT SHARP LOCK
Pubs and restaurants could shut within days as Boris Johnson prepares to impose two-week lockdown to tackle coronavirus
BORIS Johnson could impose a two-week social lockdown within days to act as a “circuit breaker” on the virus.
The PM hopes the short, sharp shock advised by top scientists will jolt Covid-19 and then let people resume their lives.
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Schools and offices will stay open, but pubs, restaurants and leisure facilities could be closed for at least a fortnight — going further than current curfews in some areas.
And according to reports, Brits could face on-off restrictions for six months as the country continues to battle the killer respiratory disease.
The two-week shutdown could reportedly be announced by the PM in a televised press conference as early as Tuesday.
Number 10 has been told by the government's Joint Biosecurity Centre, which monitors infections, that Britain is six weeks behind Spain, which recorded 239 deaths on Thursday.
A senior government source told The Times: "We can see what’s happening.
"By mid to late October if we don’t do anything then obviously that’s going to put us in a situation that looks more like we were earlier in the year.”
Experts have warned coronavirus deaths could rise unless another lockdown is introduced sooner rather than later.
Professor Neil Ferguson, whose advice led to Boris putting the UK on lockdown, has recommended "rolling back" freedoms "sooner rather than later" by "reducing contact rates between people".
It comes as…
- Lancashire, Merseyside, Wolverhampton and West Yorkshire have been given new local lockdown measures – to be in force from Tuesday.
- The UK R-rate hit 1.4 and scores of coronavirus hotspots across the country have emerged in recent weeks.
- Coronavirus cases rose by 3,395 with 21 deaths recorded yesterday
- A new 90-minute coronavirus test is 94 per cent accurate, experts have revealed
- Yesterday the head of NHS Test & Trace admitted that calls about coronavirus tests were up to FOUR times higher than the current testing capacity
- Thousands of kids with colds are being sent home from school over fears they have the deadly bug
- London’s new year fireworks have been cancelled
The epidemiologist, who was sacked from SAGE for flouting lockdown, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Right now we're at about the levels of infections that we were seeing in late February, if we leave it at another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid March.
"That's going to clearly cause deaths... I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later, the timing of any more intensive policy, temporary policy, is open to question."
Boris said yesterday a second wave was “inevitable” yet insisted he will not impose the same strict lockdown as March.
But he warned new restrictions are needed because the “rule of six” hasn’t done enough to quell the virus — with cases now doubling every week, and the R rate rising to between 1.1 and 1.4.
London has the second worst infection rate in the country as Sadiq Khan has warned it is "increasingly likely" that the capital will see another coronavirus lockdown.
He said the city is "two weeks behind" parts of the UK which have seen tighter coronavirus restrictions enforced.
The number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 over seven days in the city has skyrocketed from 18.8 to about 25, it has been reported.
Birmingham Nightingale Hospital has also been told to be ready to start receiving patients within the next 24 hours.
The PM is spending the weekend agonising over his next move.
Speaking in Oxfordshire yesterday, he said: “I don’t want to go into bigger lockdown measures at all.
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“We want to keep schools open and it is fantastic the schools have gone back in the way they have. We want to keep the economy open as far as we can. We want to keep businesses going.
“What I don’t want to do is get into a second national lockdown. It’s the last thing anyone wants.
“I’ve said for several weeks we could expect a second wave.
“We are seeing it across Europe. It has been absolutely, I’m afraid, inevitable we were going to see it in this country.”
SAGE adviser Professor Susan Michie has warned ministers not to make the same mistake of implementing lockdown measures slowly like they did in March.
She has proposed closing pubs, bars and restaurants, slashing the number of households meeting, work from home if possible and an extension of furlough until 2021.
Ms Michie told The Daily Telegraph: "We need a stitch in time. We need to learn the lessons of the spring.
"Every day's delay to a step change in measures to restrict transmission when it is increasing exponentially will be expensive in terms of health and lives in the short term and the economy in the long term."
Another SAGE adviser has called for longer and quicker lockdowns, saying it was "the only thing that we really know" that works, according to The Times.
Furthermore, a Whitehall source said there are fears among officials of being branded "being sluggish" if the government were slow to react to rising cases, adding: "It feels like we're back where we were in February and March".
Figures showed infections have almost doubled in a week with 6,000 people a day picking up the bug in England.
WHAT COULD ANOTHER LOCKDOWN LOOK LIKE
The PM has failed to rule out another national lockdown.
However, ministers are keen to avoid the strict measures endured by the country when the pandemic first arrived in the UK.
The idea that No10 want to avoid an “extended” lockdown suggests they may be willing to bring in a temporary measure of days or weeks to try and put the brakes on instead.
This would likely include bans on socialising with other households, and telling people not to use public transport unless it was essential.
And it may include a curfew on pubs and restaurants too, forcing them to shut at 10pm – like is the case in other parts of the country under local lockdown at the moment.
It’s unlikely schools and workplaces would close at this point.However, the Government has not ruled out a drastic shutdown of the economy like that which took place back in March.
It compares with just 3,200 a week earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The change in the R rate, estimated by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), means the virus is rising exponentially again.
Another 2.3million people will be living under local lockdowns from Tuesday after curbs were announced for parts of Merseyside, Lancashire, West Yorkshire and the Midlands.
That means a total of 12.3million — or one in five of the population — will be living under some form of lockdown even before new nationwide restrictions are announced.
Pubs and restaurants will have a 10pm curfew in parts of Lancashire and Merseyside.
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New restrictions will apply in Wolverhampton, Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, and all parts of Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale.
They include a ban on socialising with other households.
The PM met with top advisers on Wednesday night, who told him that a short period of lockdown restrictions would soften the blow of the second wave on the NHS.
They warned him that failing to act quickly enough will leave hospitals deluged, forcing routine operations to be cancelled again.
Some urged him to coincide the fortnight lockdown with October half term, extending the break by a week.
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Members of Sage believe the short lockdown tactic could be used repeatedly to quash waves of infections.
Prof Andrew Hayward, of University College London, told Times Radio: “One of the measures is the idea of a ‘circuit break’, which is really instead of waiting until things have got out of control and needing that long lockdown.”
Asked if that “circuit break” was needed within days, he said: “Yes.”
Opposition leaders last night urged the PM to chair a Cobra meeting to co-ordinate immediate national action.
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Earlier Downing Street confirmed a two-week lockdown was being considered, while stressing the need to avoid extended restrictions.
Dr David Rosser, chief of University Hospitals Birmingham, said of the city’s Nightingale facility: “We hope we are over-preparing but are nervous we are not.”
Boris Johnson warns that only tough love will flatten a second camel-like hump on Britain’s coronavirus graph and save Christmas
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