The United Kingdom to again implement a second national coronavirus lockdown as the infection is spreading “significantly” faster in England. According to a new survey, the Government estimated the “worst-case” scenario that might happen during Christmas. The Government’s “reasonable worst-case scenario” has been utilised by the NHS and officials to prepare for the following months ahead.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said in actual numbers people are getting infected four times than it was anticipated. The Government predicted during the winters there would be 85,000 deaths from covid-19.
But the Sage report, published on Friday, said England is in a dangerous position than it was expected. Mr Johnson thus will take a drastic move upon this matter, which is to be announced next week.
PM Johnson is expected to hold a press conference on Monday to introduce the new restrictions. During the second lockdown, only essential shops and “educational settings” including nurseries, schools and universities shall operate and everything else will remain closed.
The second national lockdown might undergo from Wednesday and remain in place until 1 December.
Mr Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are believed to be worried over the decision as a second lockdown the economy may suffer severely.
Sage scientists estimated that by mid-October, between 43,000 and 74,000 people were being infected with COVID-19 every day in England.
The report by Sage said, "This is significantly above the profile of the reasonable worst-case scenario, where the number of daily infections in England remained between 12,000-13,000 throughout October."
Scientists backed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock and senior minister Michael Gove, have informed the prime minister that it was too late for a so-called “circuit breaker”. They supposed that a longer national lockdown is the only way to stop hospitals from running out of beds.
The cabinet source added that those in the Government who opposed a lockdown were “not prepared to surrender”. PM Boris Johnson has previously been warned by scientists, including Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, that if immediate action was not taken, all hospitals in England will be full by 17 December.
“Whether it be a national four-week lockdown, I do not know, but what I do know is that the message is very clear: we have to take further action to turn this tide,” said The Conservative West Midlands mayor, Andy Street.
However, Jon Dobinson, co-founder of Recovery said, “The concept of a four-week lockdown to save Christmas is yet more cruel and inhumane policy which will further fuel the growing mental health crisis – all justified by holding out false hope. People are dying in their thousands from lockdown and restrictions: it's time to focus on that.”
Earlier on Friday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government was “striving to avoid” layered coronavirus measures. "We're always ready for further measures that we can take.”
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“But I think the most important thing about further measures is that we continue on the track we're on to target the virus,” said Dominic Raab.
According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, approximately one in 100 people in England were found covid-19 positive in the week ending 23 October. This equated to about 570,000 people which is almost a third higher than the figure for the previous week which stood at 430,000. On Friday a further 24,405 coronavirus cases were recorded in the UK that took the total number of positive tests recorded to 989,745, according to official figures. The country also reported 274 deaths within 28 days of testing positive cases.