Covid 19 coronavirus: UK enters three-level lockdown, Liverpool on high alert

The British government divided England into three levels of coronavirus risk on Monday in a bid to stem a resurgent outbreak, placing the northern city of Liverpool in the highest risk category and closing its pubs, gyms and sportsbooks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the national three-tier system was designed to “simplify and standardize” a confusing patchwork of local rules about what residents can and cannot do. Johnson said stores, schools and universities will remain open in all areas.

He told House of Commons lawmakers that the goal was to save lives and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed without “closing our lives and our society” through a new national shutdown.

But pubs, restaurants and other businesses are backing down, arguing that they are not to blame for the rise in infections.

After falling over the summer, coronavirus cases are on the rise in the UK as winter approaches, with the North West and North East of England seeing the steepest increases.

Liverpool has one of the most serious outbreaks in the country, with more than 600 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, even more than the worst affected European cities of Madrid and Brussels.

Under the new measures, areas in England are classified as medium, high or very high risk and are subject to restrictions of varying severity.

Areas at the lowest level will follow existing national restrictions, including a 10 p.m. curfew in pubs and restaurants and a ban on more than six people gathering. In high-risk areas, members of different households are prohibited from meeting indoors.

The “very high” risk level will face restrictions including closing pubs and, if local authorities wish, other venues such as gyms and casinos.

Liverpool was the only area placed in the top category on Monday, but Johnson said authorities were still talking to other local leaders in the north of England.

Under the new measures, Liverpool pubs, gyms, entertainment centers, bookmakers and casinos will close from Wednesday.

Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram said his city and others will need financial support and should know exactly what the exit strategy would be for the measures, which will be reviewed after a month.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, said the measures may not go far enough.

“I am now deeply skeptical that the government has a plan to control this virus, protect jobs, or retain public trust,” he said.

The UK has experienced the deadliest outbreak in Europe, with an official death toll of 42,875.

Health officials say Britain is at a tipping point in the outbreak, and strong action is needed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed at a time of year when they are already busiest with flu and other illnesses. wintry.

Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said there are currently more people hospitalized with the virus than when the country entered its national lockdown in March.

He said three temporary Covid-19 hospitals in the north of England that were suspended when the outbreak receded over the summer are preparing to admit patients once more in the coming weeks.

England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said Monday that while northern England has the highest infection rates, cases are increasing across the country.

“The epidemic this time clearly accelerated in the north of England earlier than in the first wave. And that almost certainly relates to the fact that disease levels in the north, and certainly in the north-west, have never decreased this much in the summer as they did in the south, “Van-Tam told a news conference.

But he added: “This is a national phenomenon now.”

The government has announced a support package to pay two-thirds of the salaries of employees in companies that are told to close, but many in the bar and restaurant sector say that is not enough to save businesses that already they are in trouble.

Bar and restaurant owners say the government has not shared any evidence to support the claim that they are the main sources of transmission of the virus.

Manchester City Council Leader Richard Leese said data from the city’s public health officials “appears to show that there is no particular connection between bars and restaurants and the transmission of Covid.”

But Calum Semple, a professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said that “most outbreaks happen within and between homes, and after that, it’s in the retail sector. and hotelier. “.

“Alcohol and people’s behavior are well known to be factors that result in loosening of adherence to regulations, let’s put it politely,” Semple told the BBC.

The measures announced Monday apply to England. The rest of the UK is subject to similar, and sometimes stricter, restrictions. In Scotland’s two largest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, pubs have been closed for 16 days to suppress the outbreak.

– AP