BACK TO THE BAD OLD DAYS
22m now hit by stricter curbs ++ 9m MORE could join them this week ++ As chief medical officer warns even toughest clampdown might not be enough, it’s...
BORIS Johnson last night plunged millions more into local lockdowns – and warned that even tougher restrictions could follow.
A third of the population will be living under stricter curbs from tomorrow, when local measures will be extended to cover 22 million. And 9 million Londoners were told they could join them within days.
In a grim warning, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said he did not think even the toughest new restrictions would be enough, and it was likely that ‘significantly more’ will be required in the worst-affected areas.
The Prime Minister yesterday ordered the closure of pubs and bars across Merseyside as he launched a three-tier system of local alert levels for england.
The Liverpool city region became the first area to enter the most serious ‘very high’ risk category, and its 1.8 million residents have been advised against travelling out of the region and banned from overnight stays.
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson accused ministers of imposing ‘lockdown by diktat’ without providing sufficient support for businesses hit by the
rules. But Mr Johnson failed to convince local leaders in other parts of the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, who resisted being placed under the restrictions.
They were instead put in the ‘high risk’ category for the time being, meaning residents are banned from meeting people from other households indoors in homes and hospitality venues. In other developments:
■ The UK recorded another 13,972 cases of Covid-19 yesterday, up 11 per cent from a week earlier, as well as 50 deaths;
■ Three temporary Nightingale hospitals in the North of England were told to prepare to take patients as demand on the NHS rises;
■ NHS staff in virus hotspots will be given regular tests, regardless of whether they are showing symptoms;
■ A think-tank report calculated that the average family could face an extra tax bill of £100 a month to prevent UK debt spiralling out of control;
■ A YouGov survey last night found that 64 per cent of voters think the Government does not have a clear plan on how to tackle the pandemic, with 20 per cent believing it does;
■ Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed most A-level and GCSE exams in England will go ahead next year with a three-week delay – but failed to reveal contingency plans if schools have to close.
The Prime Minister last night pleaded with northern leaders to change their minds over their refusal to accept the toughest curbs. He dangled incentives including cash and help from the Armed Forces if they allow their areas to move into the top tier of restrictions.
In the Commons, Mr Johnson issued a direct appeal to them: ‘I know how difficult this is – they like us are grappling with very real dilemmas – but we cannot let the NHS fall over when lives are at stake... I believe not to act would be unforgivable, so I hope that rapid progress can be made in the coming days.’
Other areas placed in the high-risk category were Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and Cheshire, whose 3.3 million residents were hit with local restrictions for the first time, as well as 2.2 million living in parts of the Midlands including Birmingham, Solihull and Leicester. In total, there are 14.7 million living in the areas in the second tier.
The remaining parts of England, including London for now, will face the existing national restrictions, such as the ‘rule of six’ and the 10pm closing of pubs and restaurants.
But London mayor Sadiq Khan warned that new restrictions banning different households from mixing indoors could be imposed on the capital within days.
He added: ‘The number of cases is rapidly increasing and all the indicators we look at are moving in the wrong direction.’
Mr Johnson last night faced criticism from both Tory colleagues and business leaders over the latest curbs.
West Midlands mayor Andy
Street said he was ‘disappointed’ the region had been put into the second tier, claiming that the Government had ignored the views of local leaders.
The Conservative mayor said the stricter measures were ‘not sometioned thing regional leaders supported, nor what I believed would be happening following extensive conversations over recent days’.
In Parliament, Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee, queshow Mr Johnson would prevent local restrictions becoming a ‘permanent state’. Mr Johnson insisted the measures were kept ‘under constant review’.
Tory MP Philip Davies told Mr Johnson to ‘put his trust in the British people to act responsibly’ instead of ‘a constant blizzard of arbitrary rules which will only serve to collapse the economy and destroy businesses and jobs’.
CBI director-general Carolyn Fairburn said there was ‘deep dismay’ from firms about further lockdown measures, while the British Chamber of Commerce said they were a ‘real blow at a delicate time for the economy’.
In a sombre warning, Professor
Whitty said he was ‘not confident’ that the tier three restrictions will be enough to get on top of the virus in the worst-affected areas.
He said: ‘We’re going to have to do more and probably in some areas significantly more... The idea that we can do this without causing harm is an illusion.’
The Prime Minister insisted new measures were needed because cases had quadrupled in the past three weeks, with more people now in hospital with Covid-19 than when the country went into a national lockdown on March 23. He added: ‘These figures are flashing at us like dashboard warnings in a passenger jet and we must act now.’
‘A blizzard of arbitrary rules’
NOBODy ever argued there would be easy answers to suppressing the pandemic.
But the new three-tier system of tough restrictions intended to stop coronavirus spreading begs a bagful of questions.
Boris Johnson insists the rules will be simpler to understand than the current patchwork of curbs on hospitality, socialising and travel.
Perhaps from the Prime Minister’s perch they are. To millions, though, the libertylimiting directives remain complicated, confusing, illogical and unfair.
Consider the worst-hit area – Merseyside. Pubs (unless they serve food), casinos and betting shops will shut, while households are banned from mixing.
But what’s to stop a couple going for a night on the town in nearby Manchester?
how come, when obesity makes people vulnerable to the virus, one can buy a Big Mac, but not visit the gym?
Precisely what criteria are used to place areas in lockdowns? And what benchmark must be met before they’re lifted?
Crucially, what evidence is there that deactivating huge swathes of the economy will control the disease? In towns and cities where curbs have been imposed for weeks, infections have gone up, not down.
yes, hospital admissions have risen to levels not seen since spring. But unless managers have been twiddling their thumbs for six months, they’re surely prepared. Deaths have stayed stable – a sliver of the lives lost at the contagion’s peak.
yet there’s mounting proof the restrictions, imposed on the back of flimsy evidence, inflict horrendous collateral damage.
The economy is being decimated. Droves are being thrown into life- ruining unemployment and poverty. Three million patients have missed cancer screening because of the NhS’s Covid obsession – consigning loved ones to an early grave.
Terrifyingly, Mr Johnson, who has bet the house on a vaccine, now vacillates on when one might arrive. So what’s the masterplan, PM? We cannot stay trapped in this societyravaging nightmare in perpetuity.
But anyone questioning the blind adherence to failing crackdowns is denounced cynically by the Government as not caring about ‘killing granny’.
Surely a fresh approach is required. This should mean sheltering the vulnerable while everyone else learns to live with coronavirus. Officials mock this as ‘wishful thinking’. But it’s not clear why. We successfully shielded the elderly and sick last time.
Addressing the Commons, Mr Johnson said restrictions were not ‘how we want to live our lives’. he’s right about that.
So it’s his duty to Britain to draw up a long-term exit strategy, not just short-term measures. This Covid- shattered country desperately needs a dose of realism, not overwrought rhetoric.