DOUBLE TROUBLE..

BRITAIN is hurtling towards a second all-out lockdown as figures show the coronavirus epidemic now DOUBLING in size week on week.

The Government’s scientific advisers claim the national R rate could now be 1.4 – meaning on average every 10 people infected are infecting 14 others.

Nationally, there were a further 4,422 confirmed UK cases of coronavirus recorded yesterday and 27 deaths – up from 4,322 confirmed cases on Friday, the first time the daily total of positive tests had exceeded 4,000 since May 8.

Yesterday the Government’s original lockdown architect, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial

College London, said tougher restrictions were needed “sooner rather than later”.

The epidemiologist – who resigned from government scientific advisory group Sage in May for flouting his own lockdown rules – said: “Right now we’re at about the levels of infections we were seeing in late February. If we leave it another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid-March.

“That’s going to clearly cause deaths.”

But Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned against introducing new blanket restrictions by pointing to huge damage already inflicted to the economy. Parts of England are already being forced back into lockdown in a bid to flatten the curve, with rules including a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants and a ban on socialising outside of households. These are now in place in the North East and start on Tuesday in the North West, Midlands and West Yorkshire.

At least 13.5 million people,

roughly a fifth of the UK population, are already facing local restrictions.

Despite this, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there has been a “marked increase” in infections across country and through all age groups, with hospitalisation among older people growing and the death rate beginning to creep up.

Admissions for coronavirus are doubling every eight days and there has been a surge in the number of patients needing intensive care.

There are currently 988 Covid-19 patients on wards in England, up from 425 at the start of the month.

It takes about three weeks for a rise in the number of cases to translate into an increase in deaths.

There are signs this is happening, with a further 27 reported yesterday. After mortality rates staying in single figures for much of July and August, the number dying within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test has risen above 20 for the past four days.

At the peak of the pandemic more than 1,000 were dying every day.

Sage said: “The higher R is above 1, the faster the epidemic is growing. We are concerned that the current doubling time could be as quick as every seven days nationally, and potentially even faster in some areas of the country. This increase on last week shows we are moving to widerspread growth in transmission at a faster rate.”

The ONS said an average of around 6,000 people in England were infected every day last week, compared with 3,200 the week before.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a national lockdown was the “last line of defence”.

But he warned that it was a “big moment for the country”. telling Sky News: “The virus is clearly accelerating across the country. We have got to take the necessary action to keep people safe. We will do what it takes.”

The sharp rise in UK cases over the last two weeks comes amid continuing problems with the Government’s much-criticised test and trace system.

Key workers whose children have been sent home because of school infections have been unable to find out if they have the virus so have had to stay away from their workplaces.