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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting calls to end the shutdown early because the coronavirus “knocked him down” and left him “tentative,” Tory sources said last night.
Cabinet ministers are divided over whether to prolong the blockade in a bid to prevent a second wave of potentially catastrophic infections, or lift it and lift the economy out of crisis.
Amid calls from senior conservative MPs for the government to agree and share the way forward, one of those MPs told the Times that fighting for his life in intensive care had changed the prime minister.
The deputy said: “The Prime Minister is in a fun place, I think he is quite scared.” His illness and the warning from the doctors have really hit him badly.
‘Finding yourself on the ground has really gotten into your head. It has become really tentative.
Johnson, who is recovering at Checkers after being released from the hospital a week ago, is classified among the Cabinet ‘pigeons’, who oppose lifting the closure early.
Other pigeons, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who also contracted the coronavirus, are believed to be more cautious, and like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are worried about a second wave of the virus that is overwhelming the country.
The ‘hawks’, consisting of Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Secretary of Commerce, and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, are believed to be concerned about the implications of a long-term shutdown of the Kingdom’s economy. United, and wants to ease the restrictions sooner.
How cabinet members are currently divided over the end of the blockade. Johnson (top left) and Matt Hancock (bottom left) are classified as ‘pigeons’; Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak (right, top to bottom) as ‘hawks’; and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (upper center) is among those in the middle, with Gavin Williamson (center) and Alok Sharma (lower center)
Johnson is particularly concerned that a second wave could bring the country to its knees, both from a health and an economic point of view.
While Hancock has been clear at press conferences during the crisis, he wants the blockade to continue to ease the burden of an NHS under pressure.
It came after the UK announced 449 more coronavirus deaths yesterday, the lowest for a fortnight, bringing Britain’s total number of deaths to 16,509.
The final advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is that blocking restrictions could not be loosened without increasing transmission for each infected person, known as R.
A Cabinet source told The Guardian: “ The scientists are very clear, we must not loosen the measures we can do so that the R does not exceed 1 again.
‘There may be some small changes on their own that could do that, but the question is whether the behaviors change in other ways and push the R above 1.
‘The moment you have R above 1, it returns to exponential growth.
‘We had R of about three. And we have reduced it. But even a small increase in transmission could put it above 1. ‘
Other ministers, such as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Business Secretary Alok Sharma, and Gavin Williamson, Secretary of Education, fall between the two camps, and neither should win them.
Figures released yesterday showed that England declared 429 deaths and another 20 were confirmed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And 4,676 more people have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of patients to 124,743.
Monday’s death toll is down from the 596 deaths announced Sunday, and half the previous day (888).
It is the lowest number for a fortnight, since April 6, when 439 victims were confirmed.
Although the statistics are known to drop after a weekend, the sharp drop adds to evidence that the peak of the UK epidemic is down.
It came after a leading Oxford University expert argued that the spike was actually about a month ago, a week before the start of the shutdown on March 23, and that the draconian measures people are now living with were unnecessary.
Professor Carl Heneghan claims that the data shows that infection rates were cut in half after the government launched a public information campaign on March 16 urging people to wash their hands and stay within two meters (6 ‘ 6 ‘) away from the others.
He said the ministers “lost sight” of the evidence and rushed to quarantine across the country six days later after receiving instructions from scientific advisers who he said have been “constantly wrong” during the crisis.
Professor Heneghan praised Sweden, which has not forced a blockade despite fierce criticism, for “standing firm” and avoiding an “end of the world scenario”.
The country has registered only 392 new patients and 40 deaths today, roughly 10 percent of the UK’s figures. Britain’s diagnoses have yet to be announced.
In separate research, the Oxford professor said he estimates the actual death rate among people who contract the virus to be between 0.1 and 0.36 percent, considerably less than the 13 percent currently developing in the Kingdom. United.
