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Boris Johnson has said he does not want to put the country in another national lockdown, but warned that the government may need to “step up things to help reduce the rate of infections.”
He added: “Now we see a second wave coming … clearly we are going to keep everything under review.
“As the disease progresses, of course, we will have to take more action.”
With COVID-19 In cases now doubling every seven to eight days, the government is considering introducing nationwide restrictions for a short period to try to “short-circuit” the virus and slow the spread of the disease.
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The government figures emphasized that the plans being drawn up did not reach a total national shutdown, as was seen in the spring, when the country was told to “stay home.”
Proposals being crafted for such a “circuit breaker” could see essential trips to schools and workplaces continue, but restaurants and bars would close, or perhaps operate on restricted hours, and different households would be asked not to mix.
The restrictions could be in place for two weeks, but the timing and duration of the measures have yet to be defined.
Meanwhile, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the prime minister to hold a COBRA meeting.
“Now he needs to take swift and decisive action at the national level to deal with this; he cannot afford to be slow.”
“If the prime minister takes action, the Labor Party will support him and do what we can.”
It comes amid fears that daily coronavirus case numbers could, within a few weeks, reach the numbers seen in March and April if the government does not take decisive action now and “punish” the disease.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s top scientific adviser, warned the prime minister in a meeting Wednesday night that the disease now doubles every seven to eight days.
They are understood to have warned that the UK is now some six weeks behind France and Spain and in danger of seeing a substantial increase in the number of cases by mid-October if the virus is not controlled.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, told Sky News on Friday that a nationwide shutdown was the “last line of defense.”
Downing Street is reluctant to have to return such draconian measures, well aware of the damage it would do to the economy and public health in the long term.
“The prime minister is in a very difficult situation because everything depends on him,” a senior minister said this week.
“The prime minister’s instinct is that he has to keep this virus under control, because if there is a spike, it falls on his shoulders. I feel sorry for him.”
The prime minister also met with Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Alok Sharma on Thursday morning to discuss the economic situation, amid anxiety in the government over the impending rise in unemployment when the leave plan ends in October.
The Treasury, along with many of Johnson’s MPs and others in his cabinet, is of the view that the country cannot return to a total lockdown and must exhaust all other options to avoid such a situation.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise across the UK with another 3,395 confirmed infections and 21 deaths reported on Thursday.
According to the Financial Times, experts from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Scientific Group on Pandemic Influenza Modeling (SPI-M) have suggested a new national lockdown.
This could coincide with the October school semester to limit the impact on children’s education, the newspaper added.
When asked about the Financial Times report, Hancock told Sky News’s Kay Burley: “The last line of defense is complete national action and I don’t want to see that, but we will do whatever it takes to keep people safe. in a very difficult situation. pandemic. “
He added: “It is not something we can take off the table but it is not something we want to see either, it is the last line of defense.”
On Thursday, localized restrictions were introduced in the north east of England, meaning that more than 10 million people across the UK are now in some form of local lockdown.
New restrictions covering all of Lancashire, with the exception of two-thirds of the Blackpool seaside resort, are expected to be announced on Friday.
Hancock confirmed that the government would be “making more announcements” on localized stocks later in the day.
“We have to recognize that the number of cases is increasing and we have to act because we know, especially when looking at other countries, that it inexorably leads to more hospitalizations and, sadly, more deaths,” he said.
“And that’s what we want to minimize and, at the same time, we want to protect people’s livelihoods.”
Pressed on how close the UK could be to a second national lockdown, the health secretary responded: “Sometimes we can’t say exactly what the future holds because we are in a pandemic.
“But I can give this hope, which is if everyone follows the rule of six, if everyone follows self-isolation if they have tested positive or if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. test, and if everyone in the local lockdown areas follows the rules close to them, then we can control this virus together.
“But only if the country unites.”
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Mr Hancock pointed to the example of Belgium as a ‘hope’ for the UK, adding: ‘They had a second peak start, quite similar to what we’ve seen in recent weeks here, and then they took action and then low.
“It fell because the country, once again, came together to fight the virus.
“In Belgium, for example, they introduced the rule of five, we introduced a rule of six.”
