FEARS OF A SECOND WAVE OF CORONAVIRUS
WARNING: ‘50,000 CASES A DAY BY THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER’ DEATH RATE COULD HIT 200 A DAY, WARNS SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR SECOND LOCKDOWN WOULD DEVASTATE PUB INDUSTRY
LANDLORDS say a second pub lockdown would have a “devastating” impact just as the industry scrambles back to its feet.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock appeared on This Morning yesterday, and refused to confirm if pubs would be allowed to open this weekend.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to address the nation today and is expected to announce new rules.
Jamie Ashley, who runs The Swan With Two Necks in St Judes, said: “Perhaps we were lulled into a false sense of security with them saying there won’t be another lockdown. I feel like we are being left in the dark.
“There have been whispers all along, but nothing more than that. I half expected it to happen sooner, the minute schools reopened.”
Asked if he thought there should be another lockdown, he said: “It’s a tricky one. While financially it would be pretty devastating, obviously I don’t want to be making my living at the expense of other people’s health.
“I am generally a bit cross with the handling of the whole situation.
“My feeling is we probably shouldn’t have come out of lockdown in the first place, because what’s very difficult is opening and closing and opening and closing it’s very expensive and time-consuming.”
He said they had to throw away thousands of pounds worth of stock after the initial lockdown was announced at short notice, and the £10,000 grants given out by the government barely covered the cost of replacing it.
Ben Cheshire, landlord at The Coronation in Southville, said the possibility of another shutdown was “all rumours” at the moment.
He said: “Since we reopened our customers have been really good in terms of the rules and queuing.
“A second [closure] would be devastating. I’d lose a lot of stock...I can’t imagine that happening again. It would be dreadful.”
Mike Houghton, general manger at The Knowle, said he would need to have a clearer understanding of the government’s plans.
He said: “It is safe to say that another lockdown could be catastrophic for my industry.
“But ultimately public safety, and the safety of our teams, should always be of the highest priority.
“If a short-term lockdown can pave the way to a long term, safe environment for us all, then it should be implemented.”
Speaking in a broadcast yesterday, chief medical officer Chris Whitty said the country’s cases have “in a bad sense turned a corner”.
He added: “If we do too little, this virus will go out of control.
“If we go too far the other way, we can cause damage to the economy. We need always to keep these two sides in mind.”
Later in the conference, he added: “We have to break unnecessary links between households, because that is the way the virus is transmitted. This means reducing social contacts, whether they are at work... and also in social environments.
“We have to try and do this in the least damaging way. We all know, we cannot do this without some significant downsides.
“This is a balance of risk - if we don’t do enough, the virus will take off. At the moment, that is the path that we are clearly on.
“If we do not change course, then we are going to find ourselves in a very difficult problem.”
Many have interpreted it as a warning that more limitations on socialising could be on the cards.
One viewer tweeted: “Pubs, restaurants, other hospitality and entertainment venues must be quaking in their boots.
“The groundwork has been done for an announcement closing them tomorrow.”
When Matt Hancock appeared on This Morning, he agreed stricter measures would be announced within the coming days.
He said: “The really sad thing about this virus is that it thrives on the things that make life worth living - the socialising, especially.
“We’ve got to be careful about that.”
When asked if landlords would be told to shut this weekend, he said: “We will be absolutely clear about the changes we need to make in the very, very near future.”