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Stronger restrictions that go into effect in the eight new areas on Saturday prohibit households from mingling indoors, limit groups gathering outdoors to six, and discourage nonessential travel.
A pedestrian passes a social distancing sign while crossing an empty road in Liverpool, North West England, on October 14, 2020, as new local lockdown measures go into effect to help stop a second wave of the novel coronavirus. Image: AFP
LONDON – About half of England is now under tighter coronavirus restrictions, after the government announced stricter measures for London and seven other areas on Thursday to try to reduce the growing number of cases.
But when ministers tightened the screw on social interaction to cut off close contact transmission, they sparked a furious feud with leaders in north-west England, where infection rates are highest.
Talks broke off about the level of financial support available to individuals and businesses affected by plans for even tougher action.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham accused the government of being “willing to sacrifice jobs and businesses here to try to save them elsewhere.”
“Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region and Lancashire are shaping up as the canaries in the coal mine for an experimental regional lockdown strategy,” he told reporters.
“There are jobs, lives, businesses at stake … (but) the package is just not good enough.”
Tighter restrictions that go into effect in the eight new areas on Saturday prohibit households from mingling indoors, limit groups gathering outdoors to six, and discourage non-essential travel.
Some nine million residents will be affected in London and more than two million more in parts of the South East, Midlands, North and North West.
But taking into account areas mainly in the north of England that are already under restrictions, the total rises to just over 28 million, more than half of England’s 56 million people.
Much of Scotland and Wales and all of Northern Ireland are also subject to restrictions, including the closure of pubs and other hospitality venues.
Yet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused mounting political and scientific pressure to impose a two-week national “circuit breaker” lockdown.
Instead, it favors a three-tier local alert system targeting infection rates, which are not evenly distributed across the country.
On Wednesday, nearly 20,000 new positive cases were recorded across the UK, while the death toll, 137, was in triple digits for the second day in a row.
The announcement means that London, Essex and Elmbridge in the south-east of England are now at level two “top” of the tiered system.
Also on the list are northeast Derbyshire, Chesterfield, and Erewash in east-central England; Barrow-in-Furness, in the northwest; and the northern city of York.
‘SMALL CHOICE’
Liverpool, in the North West of England, is the only area in the “very high” level three category. Manchester and several other areas were expected to join them until the talks fell through.
Britain is tracking its European neighbors with a second wave of infection, but Johnson has so far resisted imposing another national blockade.
The three-month stay-at-home restrictions, imposed at the end of March and lifted in June, hit the economy and businesses fear a repeat could further hurt incomes and jobs.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there were “no good options” in the face of rising cases, hospital admissions and deaths from the virus.
But he said there were “few options” given persistent problems with the government’s contact tracing scheme for people who tested positive.
There has been sustained concern about the impact of the outbreak on the hotel industry, highlighted by the announcement on Thursday by the Marstons pub chain of the loss of 2,100 jobs.
The British Beer and Pubs Association, an industry body, said existing restrictions, such as the 10:00 p.m. curfew and limits for six people, had already affected revenue.
“Level 2 measures mean that pubs can stay open but households cannot blend into them,” said BBPA CEO Emma H.
The step “completely kills the business model of our bars,” even when the additional financial assistance is only activated at level three, he added.
Johnson was criticized earlier this week for ignoring scientific advice for a brief lockdown in favor of a specific local approach.
His medical director has also questioned whether the tier system will be effective.
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