Britain at tipping point, warns health minister

LONDON: Britain is at a tipping point on Covid-19, Health Minister Matt Hancock said yesterday, warning that a second national lockdown could be imposed if people do not follow government rules implemented to stop the spread of the virus.

Covid-19 cases have risen sharply in recent weeks to more than 4,000 per day, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling it a second wave and stricter lockdown measures being introduced across the country.

“The nation faces a tipping point and we have a choice,” Hancock told

Sky News. “The choice is either that everybody follows the rules ... or we will have to take more measures.”

Hancock later told the BBC that a second national lockdown was a possible option. “I don’t rule it out, I don’t want to see it,” he said.

Johnson announced fines of up to £10,000 (RM53,077) on Saturday for people in England who break new rules requiring them to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone infected with Covid-19.

Meanwhile, epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said Britain is likely to reintroduce some national lockdown measures sooner rather than later as new cases rose to their highest level since early May.

The professor at London’s Imperial College and a former government adviser, told the BBC the country was facing a “perfect storm” of rising infections as people return to work and school.

“I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later.

“Right now, we’re at about the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February, and if we leave it another two to four weeks, we’ll be back at levels we were seeing back in mid-March, and that’s going to or could cause deaths,” Ferguson said.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon asked Johnson to meet her and the leaders of Wales and Northern Ireland within the next 48 hours to try to ensure coordinated measures across different parts of the United Kingdom.

“We know from experience earlier in the year that speed and decisiveness of action is important in the fight against Covid,” she said. – Reuters