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Well, it was good while it lasted. This morning’s news is dominated by the announcement that coronavirus restrictions are tightened again and that as of Monday, people in England will not be allowed (with certain exceptions) to socialize in groups of more than six.
Here is our main story. And here is an explanation from my colleague. Peter Walker.
Matt hancock, the secretary of health, has been giving interviews this morning. He has refused to rule out a new national blockade. And it has also offered an explanation of why many people have found it impossible to get tested for coronavirus. It’s because people are reserving tests that they don’t need, he told the Today show. He said:
The reason we have restrictions at the moment is not because capacity has decreased; far from that, capacity has increased. It is that we have suddenly seen this increase in demand from people who are not eligible. For example, I have read stories of entire schools that were told to go for a test. That’s not what tests are for. We need it for symptomatic people.
Although Labor claims that the test system is “on the brink of collapse,” Hancock denied it. He said:
I want to reassure people who have symptoms. 90% of people undergo a test that is 35 kilometers from them. The average distance anyone has to travel to get tested is less than 10 miles. So we have the vast majority of people getting tested locally, getting the results very quickly.
But this increase in demand from people who are not eligible is a problem.
I’ll post more from his round of interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30 am: The Road Transport Association provides evidence to the Commons Brexit committee on post-Brexit borders.
9.30 am: Officials from the Interior Ministry give evidence to the Commons interior affairs committee on a migrant crossing the English Channel.
10.20 am: Transportation Ministers Robert Courts and Rachel Maclean testify to the Commons transportation committee on transportation and coronavirus.
12:00 h: Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQ.
12:15 pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s prime minister, is expected to hold a debriefing on coronaviru.
After 12.30 pm: The MP begins a debate on a Labor motion on the extension of the license scheme.
Late: The government must publish its internal market bill.
4 pm: Johnson is scheduled to hold a press conference.
Politics Live has doubled as the UK’s coronavirus live blog for some time and given the way the Covid crisis overshadows everything, for the foreseeable future it will still focus primarily on the coronavirus. But we will also cover political stories that do not belong to Covid, and where they seem most important and interesting, they will take precedence.
Here’s our global coronavirus live blog.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, put “Andrew” somewhere and you’re more likely to find it. I try to answer questions and if they are of general interest I will post the question and answer above the line (ATL), although I cannot promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to get my attention quickly, it’s probably best to use Twitter. I’m in @ AndrewGorrión.
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