We face six months of curbs
PM says new corona surge is inevitable – and UK could have ‘on-off’ restrictions until spring
BORIS Johnson last night warned that Britain was ‘seeing a second wave coming in’ as he contemplated six months of ‘ on- off ’ restrictions to tackle the upsurge in coronavirus cases.
The Prime Minister, who fears the country is six weeks behind Spain and France, said it was ‘inevitable’ that a second wave would reach the UK.
He is now looking at six months of ‘onoff ’ nationwide restrictions amid concerns in Downing Street that the public is ignoring rules on social gatherings.
The new approach to get the country through winter would see it alternate periods of stricter measures with intervals of relaxation. Fortnight-long ‘circuit breakers’ would see tough restrictions introduced temporarily across the whole country to suppress the virus, before they would be lifted for a time and then reintroduced if necessary.
Measures could include bans on social contact between households, shutting down hospitality and leisure venues such as bars and restaurants, or restricting their opening hours. The Government is also looking at the possibility of introducing ‘targeted shielding’ that would see people with serious medical conditions given tailored advice.
Unlike previously when more than two million people across England were given blanket instructions to stay at home for several months, individuals would be given more specific recommenthat dations according to how vulnerable they were deemed to be.
There is concern in No 10 that people are flouting the ‘rule of six’ that came into force in England on Monday.
Mr Johnson said last night said he was considering whether the Government needed to ‘go further’ than the current national restrictions.
He said: ‘We’re looking very carefully at the spread of the pandemic as it evolves over the last few days and there’s no question, as I’ve said for several weeks now, we could expect (and) are now seeing a second wave coming in. We are seeing it in France, in Spain, across Europe – it has been absolutely, I’m afraid, inevitable we were going to see it in this country.’ Spain recorded 239 deaths in a single day this week.
The Prime Minister insisted a second lockdown was the ‘last thing anybody wants’ but said the current measures would need to be kept ‘under review’.
He added: ‘On Monday, we brought in the measures that we did, the “rule of six”, to really try and restrict what people are doing and to bring in a new buffer. But the crucial thing is at the same time to observe the basic rules on social distancing – hands, face, space – that is what everybody has got to do if we want to continue to beat this thing.
‘But as we look at this particular curve and what is happening now, clearly we are going to keep everything under review. I don’t want to get into a second national lockdown at all – it is the last thing anybody wants.
‘I don’t want to go into bigger lockdown measures at all, we want to keep schools open. We want to keep the economy open as far as we possibly can, we want to keep businesses going. The only way we can do that is obviously if people follow the guidance.’
Asked about the possibility of a two-week October half-term in order to bring in a short lockdown, Mr Johnson said: ‘We want to keep the schools open, that is going to happen. We want to try and keep all parts of the economy open as far as we possibly can.’
Earlier in the day, Matt Hancock suggested measures would need to be in place into next year.
The Health Secretary said: ‘The strategy is to keep the virus down as much as is possible whilst protecting education and the economy. And doing everything we possibly can for the cavalry that’s on the horizon – the vaccine and mass testing, and the treatments that, frankly, this country has done more than any other around the world to develop.’
‘The last thing anybody wants’