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UK PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson will address the House of Commons today as the country prepares for further lockdown restrictions.
Johnson will set steps to address a second wave of coronavirus when he appears before MPs today, following harsh assessment by Patrick Vallance and England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty.
The UK was warned to brace for a difficult six months as the virus could spread more easily during the fall and winter, and Professor Whitty hinted that restrictions on social life were needed to prevent the coronavirus from spiraling out of control. , highlighting the need to “break unnecessary links”. ”Between homes.
Johnson will chair Cobra’s emergency committee and cabinet meetings today, including the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as he considers what action to take.
The medical directors of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland said yesterday in a joint statement that the four nations of the United Kingdom should move to Level 4 on the Covid-19 alert scale.
They said: “The Joint Center for Biosafety has recommended that the alert level of Covid-19 should go from Level 3 (a Covid-19 epidemic is in general circulation) to Level 4 (a Covid-19 epidemic is in general circulation ; transmission is high or increasing exponentially).
Additional restrictions will also be placed on social gatherings throughout Northern Ireland.
The new measures, announced in response to a growing number of Covid-19 cases, were confirmed tonight by Prime Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill.
Under the new rules, there will be no two-household mixing indoors, except for one-person household bubbles, where two households merge to support adults living alone or single parents with children. Some other exemptions also apply.
No more than six people from two households can meet in private gardens.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock refused to guarantee that England’s pubs could open this weekend as ministers considered options to limit the spread of the virus.
He said the country was at a “tipping point” and “we are working right now on what additional measures may be necessary.”
The four UK medical directors recommended raising the Covid alert level from three to four, the second highest, indicating that “the epidemic is in general circulation; the transmission is high or increases exponentially ”.
He said there was “no question” that the UK was seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases among all age groups.
Last week it emerged that senior NHS officials contacted the HSE for help with testing for Covid-19.
The UK faces problems with its government’s Covid-19 tracking and testing program, as people are forced to travel hundreds of miles to get tested.
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HSE Executive Director Paul Reid said he was contacted by NHS officials early last week to help plug a hole in their system.
Meanwhile, Hancock said the government was “determined” to keep schools open during the next phase of the coronavirus response, adding: “The evidence is that schools are not where a lot of transmission occurs, it’s more about the people socialize. “
Asked by presenter Phillip Schofield on ITV’s This Morning if people would be “socially locked in our own homes,” Hancock said: “Well, there are already parts of the country where, sadly, there are measures to say that you shouldn’t socialize with people. outside your home. “
Other measures that have been introduced into local lockdowns across England have included 10pm curfews for pubs and restaurants.
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