Boris caught in fresh controversy

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had sought to avoid a second lockdown last autumn, arguing that most of the people dying were over 80, his former aide claimed on Tuesday.

Dominic Cummings, who was Johnson’s top adviser until November, made the claim in an interview with the BBC. Cummings shared Whatsapp messages apparently from Johnson with the BBC, in the latest of a series of attacks on the government following his resignation.

The UK PM allegedly wrote

LONDON/ADELAIDE:

last autumn in a message shown by Cummings that most people were dying from Covid-19 at an age above the average life expectancy.

“So get Covid and live longer,” Johnson allegedly wrote. Cummings described his attitude at the time as, “This is terrible, but the people dying are essentially all over 80 and we can’t kill the economy just because of people dying over 80.”

The former adviser also claimed that at the start of the pandemic, he had to persuade Johnson not to continue meeting Queen Elizabeth II every week.

In France, health minister Olivier Veran said that new Covid-19

infections were increasing at an “unprecedented rate” due to the Delta variant after cases hit 18,000 in the last 24 hours.

Delta now makes up 83% of US cases, says CDC

In the US, officials say the Delta variant continues to surge and accounts for an estimated 83% of Covid-19 cases in the country. It’s a sharp increase from the week of July 3, when the variant accounted for 50% of genetically sequenced coronavirus cases.

Adelaide on Tuesday became the latest in a string of Australian cities to lock down. It joined Sydney and Melbourne in locking down.