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Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has acknowledged that coronavirus rates are in “a bad place in all parts of the country” but has said the government does not want a second national lockdown.
He said the government is receiving advice from scientists “almost daily,” but that there is no plan to move from the localized tiered approach.
Jenrick said a lockdown would further hurt the economy
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It comes as talks are taking place with West Yorkshire and Leeds about a possible move to Level 3 as cases increase.
Researchers from Imperial College London have said that existing measures to control the virus in England are not working, with an estimated 96,000 people a day. be infected.
But Jenrick told Kay Burley that “it is our very strong opinion” that a national lockdown, or “circuit breaker,” is not the correct measure.
He told Sky News: “We don’t want to create a second national lockdown. We know that it has some effect on suppressing the virus, but we also know that it is immensely disruptive on other aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods and health. and welfare in general, so we will do everything possible to avoid that situation. “
Mr. Jenrick said that new closures in other European nations, including France, will have “long-term healing effects” on people.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the new measures that will begin on Friday
He said: “Right now we have a very strong opinion that this is not the right approach for the country, it is not a short-term measure, it will likely be for several weeks.”
“If it was successful, it will probably need to be repeated regularly – you can’t have a country where companies close, people lose their jobs, then have to restart again, the damage to people’s mental health and broader well-being I think it would be huge. “
Meanwhile, the government is reportedly considering the rapid deployment of saliva-based coronavirus kits in an attempt to test up to 10% of England’s population each week.
According to The Guardian, NHS Test and Trace is stepping up its efforts to meet the targets set out in the government’s Operation Moonshot plans announced last month.
The testing program would target the regions with the highest level of restrictions and mark a significant increase from the current capacity of 2.1 million conventional nose and throat swabs per week.
The leaked letter comes as the latest figures from Test and Trace are to be released later, a source of criticism for the government in recent weeks.
Last week’s figures revealed that only 59.6% of the proportion of close contacts of people who tested positive was reached, the lowest weekly percentage since the show began.
