England faces a strict national lockdown under plans Boris Johnson is considering

BORIS JOHNSON IS considering imposing new, stringent nationwide lockdown restrictions just days after scientists warned that half a million people were becoming infected with coronavirus each week.

The British prime minister is expected to announce the measures for England, which could be introduced on Wednesday and last until December 1, at a press conference on Monday, according to The Times.

Everything except essential stores and educational settings could be closed under the new measures, the newspaper said, but no final decisions are believed to have been made. Tighter regional measures are also being considered.

Johnson has so far resisted pressure from scientists and the Labor Party to introduce a “circuit breaker” to curb Covid-19 cases, but is facing further calls after new data showed the extent of the cases in England.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey found that cases “continued to rise sharply” in the week ending October 23, with an estimated 568,100 people in infected households.

Scientific advisers at the top of the government believe that it is now too late for a two-week national circuit breaker to have sufficient effect and a longer national lockdown is needed to bring the virus’s reproduction number, or R-value, below. one’s. .

All parts of England are on track to eventually end Tier 3 restrictions, they believe, while deaths could reach 500 a day in a matter of weeks.

Government scientists are also confident that more than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus occur in England every day.

It comes as official documents released by the government showed that a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on October 8 said that the number of infections and hospital admissions is “exceeding reasonable levels of worst-case planning in this moment”.

The document, which was released just days before the three-tier restrictions were announced, said that the death toll was also “very likely to exceed reasonable worst-case planning levels” in the next two weeks.

Professor Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease expert and member of Sage, said last night that to control the coronavirus “we have to act now.”

He tweeted: “The best time to act was a month ago, but these are very difficult decisions that we would all like to avoid. The second best moment is now.

“The sooner we overcome the disease, reduce transmission, R <1, the sooner we can get our society back to normal and the economy back to normal."

In Northern Ireland, pubs and restaurants were closed for four weeks starting October 16, with the exception of takeaways and deliveries. The schools were closed for two weeks.

Wales is currently under a “firewall” lockdown with leisure, hospitality and tourism businesses closed, and in Scotland most people will be under Tier 3 of a new five-tier system as of Monday.