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AFP
Boris Johnson will spend the weekend considering whether to further toughen Covid-19 measures, after saying the UK is “now seeing a second wave.”
It is understood that the government is studying a ban on mixing in homes in England and reducing the opening hours of pubs and restaurants.
At least 13.5 million people – roughly one in five of the UK population – already face local restrictions.
In London, additional measures were “increasingly likely,” its mayor said.
Johnson only has direct power over restrictions in England. The delegated governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may establish their own rules.
There has been widespread growth of the virus across the country, with cases doubling every seven to eight days.
There were another 4,322 confirmed cases on Friday, the first time the daily total of positive tests has surpassed 4,000 since May 8.
Meanwhile, governments across Europe have announced new restrictions to cope with rising infections.
Speaking on Friday, Johnson said he did not “want to take bigger blocking measures” but that stricter social distancing rules might be necessary.
He added: “Clearly when you look at what is happening, you have to ask yourself if we need to go beyond the rule of six that we brought in on Monday.”
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The government is understood to be considering a short period of stricter rules in England – “a circuit breaker” – which could lead to the closure of hotel establishments.
However, schools and workplaces would remain open.
No 10 also seeks to limit the opening hours of pubs and restaurants across the country, as has already happened in many areas of North East England where pubs had to close at 22:00 BST on Friday.
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford and Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer have called on the prime minister to hold an emergency Cobra meeting.
Sturgeon said the next few days would be “critical” in avoiding another full-scale lockdown in Scotland.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was extremely concerned by the evidence of the accelerating speed with which the coronavirus was spreading in the capital.
“We will consider some of the measures that have already been imposed in other parts of the UK,” he said.
“I am of the firm opinion that we should not wait, as it did six months ago, for this virus to spiral out of control again before taking action.”
The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the R number, which represents the number of people to whom an infected person will transmit the virus, has risen to between 1.1 and 1.4.
Although deaths remain at a very low level, Sage said the increase in the R number “shows that we are moving toward broader growth in transmission at a faster rate.”
Public Health England Medical Director Yvonne Doyle warned of “much worse things to come.”
The sharp rise in cases in the UK over the past two weeks comes amid ongoing problems with the government’s test and trace program, leading to people struggling to access evidence.
‘The UK’s trajectory is not set in stone’
The question is no longer where we are, but where we are going.
Yes, the number of people infected, hospitalized with Covid, or dying from the disease is at much lower levels than at the peak.
Scientists will argue about the exact definition of a “second wave,” but all the data points to a growing number of infections.
Government scientific advisers say the number is doubling every week.
If those trends continue, infections could rise from an estimated 6,000 a day to more than 100,000 by mid-October.
It is that trajectory, which is not set in stone, the government is trying to change.
There are questions for politicians, from whether to “cut the circuit” to improve Test and Trace.
But, with evidence to suggest that only one in five people follow self-isolation rules when ill, there are questions for all of us, too.
New restrictions take effect on Tuesday for much of North West England, West Yorkshire and the Midlands.
The most recent areas in which additional measures were implemented include Lancashire (excluding Blackpool), Merseyside and the Cheshire districts of Warrington and Halton.
Additional restrictions are also being implemented in Wolverhampton, Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, and in all parts of Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale.
In all, about 4.7 million people will be affected by the new restrictions, which prohibit separate households from meeting at home or in private gardens.
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