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A top conservative has stated that England’s national blockade will end on time on December 2.
Alok Sharma twice told the nation that the closure of nonessential pubs, gyms, hair salons and stores will “end” on schedule.
It comes despite the fact that Boris Johnson had come up short before giving a guarantee, and despite a huge jump in the number of confirmed cases daily today.
The prime minister has promised that the laws enforcing the lockdown will end on December 2, but he stopped short of saying that the lockdown itself will definitely end in time.
The laws could be extended if MPs vote on them again, and top conservative Michael Gove has made it clear that the lockdown could be extended if necessary.
But Business Secretary Mr Sharma said today: “We have made it very clear that the national restrictions will come to an end on December 2 and then we will return to the tiered system.
“I think the important thing right now is… we observe the rules, we observe the guidance and we do the basics to protect ourselves. Wash your hands, cover your face, maintain social distance.
And of course, as we get to December 2, the Prime Minister will give more details.
“But the national restrictions will come to an end on December 2.”
Even when the lockdown is over, Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, warned that life would not “completely return to normal.”
He added: “Other measures will need to be implemented because while this virus is still here, we must ensure that infection rates are kept as low as possible and that we reduce the possibility of transmission.”
(Image: PA)
It comes after a massive jump in the number of daily new people testing positive to 33,470, the highest number ever recorded.
It is possible that the number of cases was higher in the first wave when the tests were less extensive.
Professor Powis urged people to “not look at a single day” and emphasized that the moving average of new daily cases was 22,524, just slightly more than 22,398 a week ago.
Meanwhile, there are now 14,196 Covid patients in hospitals across the UK, up from 12,406 a week ago, and up from 3,827 a month ago.
There are 1,219 patients on ventilation beds, up from 1,142 a week ago.
Professor Powis sidestepped the question of whether December 2 was too early to end the blockade, saying that “it is rightly a government decision.”
But he said the system look is too early to call it. “It is too early to say exactly what those measures are,” said the leading expert.
“We have only been one week into this four-week lockdown. We need to see what happens in the next few weeks. “
Boris Johnson plans to outline the plan after Dec. 2 in about two weeks in Parliament. England will revert to a tiered system, but the details may be different than they were before.
(Image: PA)
Professor Powis said that the data now shows that the level 3 lockdown was starting to work in Liverpool, but we will have to wait a week or two before knowing if the national lockdown is having an effect.
Today’s update comes after two studies suggested that the ‘R’ number in England may now be below 1, meaning the spread of the virus is slowing each week.
The REACT study from Imperial College London calculated between October 26 and November 2, just before closing, it was at 0.85. It was below 1 in all but two regions.
And data from the ZOE Covid-19 Symptom app suggested that the ‘R’ rate across all UK countries now appears to be below 1.
R means how many people are infected per person with Covid-19, on average. More than 1 and the virus rate increases every week; less than 1 and the virus rate is reduced.
In the most recent survey period, REACT scientists estimated that 1.3% of the entire population of England (around 1 million people) had the virus at some point.
But the REACT study showed promising results in the week to November 2, known as the study’s ’round 6b’.
The R number in round 6b was said to be 0.77 in London, 0.83 in the North West, and 0.88 in Yorkshire and the Humber. It was only above 1 in the Northeast (1.15) and the East of England (1.12).
In round 6, the R number was 2.86 in London, 1.21 in the North West, 1.54 in Yorkshire and the Humber, 0.57 in the North East and 2.18 in the East of England.
Professor Powis told the news conference that infections should not simply “stabilize at a high level”, saying that it is important that infection rates also go down.
Sharma urged people to follow the rules of blockade and social distancing.
This time, adding a warning to his comments, he said: “I hope that if people do that, we will defeat this and we will get out of the national restrictions on December 2.”
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