- Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly believes the UK could be affected by a second wave of coronavirus in just two weeks.
- Johnson said Tuesday that other European countries already seemed to be hit by a second wave.
- A senior government source told the Daily Mail that a similar increase in cases could soon affect the UK.
- Britain is preparing to re-impose a quarantine of coronavirus on arrivals from those European countries that are experiencing the largest increases in cases.
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson believes the UK could be hit by a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in just two weeks, as his government prepares to reimpose quarantine measures on arrivals from more European countries .
An unidentified government source told the Daily Mail that the prime minister, who said on Wednesday that other European countries were already experiencing a second wave, believes that a similar increase could affect the UK within a fortnight.
“The prime minister is extremely concerned about what he is seeing abroad and fears that we may see the same here in fifteen days.” “People have to realize that we are still in the midst of a pandemic,” the source said.
They added: “He wants to go further by opening things up and getting people back to work, but he knows he will be his head on the block if things go wrong.”
Last week, the UK removed Spain from its travel exemption list, citing an increase in cases in some regions of the country.
Having re-imposed quarantine in Spain, forcing arrivals in England to be quarantined for 14 days, the government is expected to re-apply restrictions on arrivals from Belgium and Luxembourg this week, The Times of London reports.
The report suggests the Johnson government could reimpose rules as early as Thursday, and that it is also “keeping a close watch” on Croatia, although imminent changes are not expected for people arriving in England from there.
The UK government’s decision to tighten the rules on arrivals from abroad comes amid growing fear within Downing Street that a second wave of the coronavirus could affect the UK early next month.
The seven-day average of new cases of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom rose nearly 30% in three weeks ago, when the Johnson government gave the green light to the reopening of the hotel industry in England.
More UK councils are carrying out blockades to combat local outbreaks. The last one is in the city of Oldham, in the north-west of England, where people have been asked not to have social visits to their homes.
Prime Minister Johnson this week warned UK European neighbors that they were beginning to see “signs of a second wave” of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Let us be absolutely clear about what is happening in Europe, among some of our European friends: I am afraid you are beginning to see, in some places, the signs of a second wave of the pandemic,” he said Tuesday.
He added that “what we have to do is take rapid and decisive measures where we believe that the risks are beginning to bubble again.”
Johnson’s warnings come as Belgium, Germany, Spain and France grapple with sudden increases in COVID-19 cases, and some governments introduce measures including curfews and quarantines. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Monday that the pandemic “continues to accelerate” worldwide.
