Britain s second wave: chaos in the U-turn Kingdom ’

Iwas meant to return to the office last Wednesday for the first time since March 10 when Covid-19 hit the UK. I had prepared psychologically and practically, how I would get there and what my office corona kit would comprise. So much for that.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a number of restrictions would be reintroduced across England given an alarming spike in infections, due not only to more testing, but a larger proportion of tests coming back positive.

Echoing developments in mainland Europe once more, the UK, like France and Spain, was this past week experiencing increased community transmission not just in younger age groups, but also to the older population, and this inevitably was accompanied by more hospitalisations and deaths.

The UK this past week saw its highest daily figure, with more than 6,000 cases recorded each day since Thursday. Some of the government restrictions announced last week include a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants, and in a reversal of government policy, homeworking is encouraged for a further six months.

The latter has been most frustrating for businesses and workers alike, because in August and September the government had been beseeching workers to return to the office to save the wider economy. The UK’s scientists are divided on the wisdom of lockdowns, particularly given the success of Sweden and Japan in pursuing the so-called herd immunity” strategy that allows for voluntary adherence to recommendations.

Further, the effects of lockdown on mental health and economic wellbeing are also worrying. The government’s confused messaging and policy U-turns on these issues have eroded public trust in the rules, which with the current infection rate could prove to be deadly. The net effect of the 10pm curfew and the policy uncertainty meant that scenes emerged from Leicester Square and Oxford Street of street parties as everybody was turfed out of the bars and restaurants at the same time.

This, in turn, meant that the Friday night underground trains were packed with inebriated revellers at levels not seen since before the lockdown, making social distancing impossible, and with people likely to go on drinking at venues less safe than the pubs.

The hospitality sector is one of the UK’s largest, and this latest nonsensical measure to close at 10pm as opposed to the usual 11pm or so, will lead to even more jobs being shed. Even worse is that scarce resources are being wasted on a new invention: “Covid marshals” who patrolled Soho and Notting Hill on Friday night, checking that establishments were, in fact, kicking out punters at the appointed time.

Despite the economic damage to the hospitality sector, London mayor Sadiq Khan seems to be pushing for another full-blown lockdown, or at least for households to be banned from mixing altogether. England now has “a rule of six” in place for different households to mix in groups no bigger than six people, and Wales and Scotland have even tougher restrictions in place. With Christmas around the corner, all of these developments taken together have left business owners, and everyone really, a bit at a loss over what to do, and frustrated with the government and its scientists.

I will obey the law and conform to the new measures, but having learnt more about the mortality rate of the disease, I now believe that some combination of economic opening while shielding the elderly (within reason and with consideration for the mental and physical health effects of prolonged isolation) with rigorous testing, mask wearing and hand washing is the way forward.

Dr Desné Masie is the chief strategist at IC Publications in London, and a fellow of the Wits School of Governance.