[ad_1]
In mid-July, when the first wave of the pandemic in the UK subsided, Boris Johnson was asked if he could impose the next national lockdown in winter. He doubted, the Prime Minister replied, that the country would be isolated again if it were a “nuclear” option: “I don’t want to go back to that. And I don’t think we will be in that situation again.”
Three months and many thousands of people infected by Covid-19 later, Johnson appeared live in front of the nation on Monday night and announced that the daily lives of around 17 million Englishmen will now again be subject to massive restrictions.
Especially the people of Liverpool and surroundings, as of Wednesday they are not allowed to meet other people inside or outside, they are no longer allowed to go to pubs for a drink, and no longer visit gyms. It wasn’t a national lockdown Johnson imposed, not yet. But: “The numbers shine like warning lights on a passenger plane.”
Back on the road
In fact, all four parts of the kingdom have reported rapidly rising infection rates since late September. In England and Wales alone, more than 13,000 people were recently infected recently; the number of people requiring hospital treatment is now higher than before the national shutdown in March.
Particularly concerning: Although the government announced containment measures weeks ago for particularly affected regions in central and northern England, the virus continues to rampage there at an above-average rate. England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, sees it this way: The country is practically back to where it was in March.
On Monday, Johnson tried to pull the cord. In order to “simplify and standardize” the rules and exceptions in the fight against the pandemic, which are difficult to follow, the head of government announced a three-stage corona alert system. Consequently, regions with “medium”, “high” and “very high” infection risk will be flagged across the country in the future. The higher the risk, the tighter the restrictions.
Liverpool, the most affected
The 500,000-strong city of Liverpool in northwestern England has been hit the hardest so far. With as many as 1,000 new infections being tallied there every day recently, the lives of happy Liverpool residents will now stand still for at least four weeks in many places.
For much of the North of England and the Midlands, warning level 2 applies for the time being – the government still sees medium risk in the rest of England, including London. The rules that until now were common remain there, such as the fact that a maximum of six people can meet inside and outside at the same time.
The Johnson administration apparently wants to regain some of the confidence it has lost in recent months due to a series of wrong decisions and setbacks. However, it is questionable whether the unfortunate prime minister will succeed. In any event, his late-night television appearance was less than 20 minutes long when critics across the country pointed to the following inconsistencies in the concept of the new crown.
Wales wants to prevent the British from entering the country
For example, pubs in high-risk areas can stay open if they offer “big meals” with beer, whatever that means. It is also unclear how and if the government will prevent citizens from leaving the crown hotspots. As a precaution, the Welsh regional government has already made it known that it does not want to allow people arriving from England to pass easily in the future: the North Wales border is about 50 kilometers from the Liverpool metropolitan area.
With the new measures, the central government in London is also at risk of fueling the ire of the heads of town councils in northern England. Many of them have complained across party lines for weeks that ongoing restrictions will lead to the ruin of the economically troubled region.
Several mayors complain that the Johnson administration has made matters worse in the north due to serial incompetence. More recently, for example, there were hair-raising breakdowns in mass tests for the population: sometimes around 16,000 people who tested positive were simply ignored due to a computer failure, sometimes the tests sold out in Manchester and all other critical points in the north.
Did Johnson really follow science?
Andy Burnham, a Labor politician and head of Greater Manchester, doubts the government still has the situation under control. The edict issued weeks ago to close pubs at 10pm, for example, is not only useless, but possibly counterproductive. In any case, there are several indications that thirsty people simply continue to drink in the street late at night, but are no longer paying attention to social distance.
Therefore, Burnham and others are increasingly demanding that Johnson finally reveal the scientific basis on which he made these and other decisions. After all, the head of government assures at every opportunity that he is “following the science.”
Doubts about this have increased again since Monday. It then became public that the Johnson government’s scientific advisory council (abbreviated: Sage) had urgently recommended strict restrictions on public life three weeks ago.
Experts advised a temporary block from the start
According to minutes from the Sept. 21 meeting, professionals asked Johnson for a two-week national lockdown to halt the exponential rise in infections. Anyone who can work from home should be prohibited from meeting with people from other homes; Pubs, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, and other service providers should close immediately, college courses should only be taken online.
The scientists made their recommendation at a time when the recent crisis still seemed manageable and around 3,000 new infections were reported daily. But the Johnson administration only accepted one proposal, working from home.
The experts had made it very clear that anything other than immediate restrictions would have “catastrophic consequences.”
