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FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – From midnight today almost ten million people in Britain (out of a total population of 66 million) will be blocked again: local measures, mainly affecting the north-eastern regions of England and the Manchester and Birmingham metropolitan areas, are the answer to the increase in infections it saw yesterday record more than 4 thousand new cases nationwide. The new measures require the closure of pubs and restaurants at 10 p.m. and the prohibition of socializing with people outside the family, as well as the recommendation to use public transport only when strictly necessary. And the fear now that these measures could be extended to the rest of the country, starting with London, where coronavirus cases have doubled in the past two weeks.
Already last Monday the rule of six had begun throughout the country, which prohibits meeting, even at home and with relatives, in groups of more than six people. And today Prime Minister Boris Johnson has launched a public call from the newspapers to respect this provision to flatten the camel’s hump and thus save Christmas: because if these measures are maintained until December, then farewell dinner.
But the London government seems to be in full panic: and leaks the news that if the infections do not return within two weeks, a new national blockade would be activated, including the recommendation to always work from home. This latest setback would be particularly painful, and disastrous for the economy, given that the government has tried to persuade unbridled citizens to return to their offices, which have now largely adapted to smart work rather than well.
Downing Street’s concern that the situation will spiral out of control and Britain will be the victim of a second wave, a bit like what happened in Spain: actually the level of infections – and even more so that of hospitalizations and deaths – far from the peaks of March-April. But Johnson, after so many uncertainties and mess in handling the pandemic, this time does not want to take risks. The more so since the trend that is emerging in Europe is not at all reassuring. Even in Germany, a model country in the management of the infection, the virus rears its head: yesterday the new cases exceeded two thousand, a threshold that had not been seen for a long time. And in France, the Health Minister admitted that ICU admissions are growing at a worrying level.
A very serious situation is what is occurring in Europe, where weekly new cases of coronavirus have exceeded those reported when the pandemic first struck in March, said Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe. More than half of the European countries, highlighted during an online briefing, have registered increases of more than 10% in the last two weeks and in seven countries the increase was more than double. These figures, he concluded, represent an alarming trend and should be a wake-up call for everyone, and the WHO is also concerned about the reduction of quarantine periods in different countries.
September 17, 2020 (change September 17, 2020 | 19:39)
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