Britain ponders 2nd lockdown
UK stares at 50,000 Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October, say experts; deaths in US inch towards 200,000
LONDON/ WASHINGTON: Britain is considering another national lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19, with top experts warning on Monday that the country could see 50,000 daily infections by mid-October if swift action is not taken. Across the Atlantic, the coronavirus continued to torment the US as fatalities from the disease inched towards 200,000 while the number of cases crossed 6.8 million, according to the tracker run by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. The US, on a weekly average, is losing about 800 lives each day to the disease, according to a Reuters tally. It is down from a peak of 2,806 daily Covid-19 deaths recorded on April 15. In London, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet was reportedly divided on the issue of a fresh national lockdown in view of another severe blow that it would inflict on the economy. In a sign of the urgency, the UK’s chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Chris Whitty appeared on live TV without a minister present to report the latest data, describing it as “critical”. UK’s Covid-19 cases are doubling every seven days for the first time in recent months, they said.
“If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated, and this grows, doubling every seven days... you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day,” Vallance warned.
He went on to predict more than 200 daily deaths from the virus by mid-November. “The challenge, therefore, is to make sure the doubling time does not stay at seven days. That requires speed, it requires action and it requires enough in order to be able to bring that down,” he said.
After daily increases in cases in the hundreds in July and August, the figures have consistently been in the thousands in September. On Sunday, 3,899 new cases and 18 deaths were reported across the UK, as experts reiterated basic precautions needed. The call was also prompted by the annual challenge of dealing with seasonal ailments in winter.
Parts of the UK are already under local lockdowns, with a range of heavy fines to be imposed from September 28 on those breaching self-isolation or restrictions.
Countries elsewhere in Europe are also racing to contain the pandemic. The German city of Munich will require masks to be worn at the busiest public spaces in tightened restrictions announced on Monday.
Italy will test those travelling from France from Tuesday. Police in the Spanish capital of Madrid are stopping people coming in and out of hot spot neighbourhoods.