Health Secretary Matt Hancock has not ruled out a second national lockdown, telling Sky News: “We’ll do what is necessary to keep people safe.”
It has been reported that scientists advising the government have proposed a two-week national lockdown in October to try to tackle the rising number of coronavirus cases.
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Scientists advising the government are reported to be proposing a two-week national lockdown in October
The government has confirmed that the prime minister met with England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, on Wednesday night where they discussed the latest COVID-19 data.
Government figures said the prime minister was weighing up whether he has to introduce national restrictions for a short period of time in the next few weeks in order to try to put a brake on the spread of coronavirus, amid concerns it is doubling every seven to eight days.
It is understood such a “circuit break” would see schools and workplaces continue to remain open, but restrictions being imposed on people’s social lives.
It was said the hope is such measures would prevent more radical action being taken, although no final decision has been made.
Asked about the possibility of a second national lockdown, Mr Hancock told Sky News’ Kay Burley: “The last line of defence is full national action and I don’t want to see that but we will do whatever is necessary to keep people safe in a very difficult pandemic.”
He added: “It isn’t something that we ever take off the table but it isn’t something that we want to see either, it is the last line of defence.
“But what I would say this morning is the country once again needs to come together and recognise there is a serious challenge.
“The virus is accelerating. Unfortunately it isn’t just cases increasing, it’s also the number of people ending up in hospital increasing.”
According to the Financial Times, experts on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) have suggested a new national lockdown.
This could coincide with the October school half-term in order to limit the impact on children’s education, the newspaper added.
On Thursday, localised restrictions were introduced in northeast England, which means more than 10 million people across the UK are now in some form of local lockdown.
New restrictions covering the whole of Lancashire, with the exception of two thirds of the seaside resort of Blackpool, are expected to be announced on Friday.
Mr Hancock confirmed the government would be “making further announcements” on localised action later in the day.
“We do have to recognise that the number of cases is rising and we do have to act because we know, especially from looking at other countries, that inexorably leads to more hospitalisations and sadly more deaths,” he said.
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“And that is what we want to minimise and we want to protect people’s livelihoods at the same time.”
Pressed on how close the UK might be to a second national lockdown, the health secretary replied: “Sometimes we can’t say exactly what the future holds because we’re in a pandemic.
“But I can give this hope, which is that if everybody follows the rule of six, if everyone follows self-isolation if they have tested positive or if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, and if everybody in the local lockdown areas follows the rules near them, then we can control this virus together.
“But only by the country pulling together.”
Mr Hancock pointed to the example of Belgium as offering “hope” for the UK, adding: “They had a start of a second spike, quite similar to what we’ve seen over the last few weeks here, and then they took action and then it came down.
“It came down because the country, once again, came together to tackle the virus.
“In Belgium, for example, they introduced the rule of five, we’ve introduced a rule of six.”
Responding to reports the government could be considering further national restrictions, Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Labour warned months ago that unless the government spent the summer fixing the testing regime then we would face a bleak winter.
“The government ignored that advice, the testing regime is collapsing and so it is not surprising national restrictions are back on the table.”