Lockdown could last beyond 2 December, Michael Gove warns
England’s new lockdown could last for more than a month, Michael Gove confirmed this morning.
Speaking to Sky News, the minister for the Cabinet Office confirmed that the restrictions could be extended beyond 2 December, when they are due to come to an end.
The decision will depend on whether the “R-rate” has been sufficiently reduced over the next month.
“We can definitively say that unless we take action now, the NHS is going to be overwhelmed in ways that none of us could countenance”, he added.
His warning came after Boris Johnson last night announced a national lockdown for England which will begin on Thursday and last for a month.
In a Downing Street briefing, Johnson said new restrictions will last until 2 December due to the “exponential growth” in hospital admissions and concerns the NHS will be overrun.
The new restrictions will close all hospitality venues but takeaways and deliveries will be permitted, and essential shops will be able to stay open. Unlike the first lockdown, courts, schools and universities will also be exempt from the measures.
Mixing households will be strictly prohibited other than for childcare purposes.
MPs will vote on the new restrictions before they are introduced at midnight on Thursday. After four weeks of the tougher measures England will move back to its three-tier system.
As a result of the new restrictions, Johnson has announced the extension of the furlough system for a further month, paying 80 per cent of employees’ wages.
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the prevalence of the disease had been “going up extremely rapidly over the last two weeks” with around 50,000 new cases per day, and a rise in hospital admissions in those over the age of 45.
“If we do nothing… the numbers will exceed the peak we saw in the Spring”, he warned.
He was echoed by the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance who said there is a “potential for this to be twice as bad or more than the first wave”.
It marks a significant shift in the PM’s coronavirus response, having resisted pressure to introduce a national lockdown, opting instead for a localised tier system.
Two weeks ago he defended his strategy of local restrictions by saying he wanted to avoid the “misery of a national lockdown.”
On Saturday evening he said the UK had to be “humble in the face of nature” and the scientific models suggest deaths could run at several thousand a day.
Ministers had previously turned down plans for a two-week “circuit breaker” over half-term in favour of local restrictions, but a longer lockdown is now thought to be necessary to “save Christmas.”
The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies initially proposed the circuit breaker, which Wales has adopted, in mid-September in an attempt to reduce infection rates.
The UK recorded a further 21,915 positive cases and 326 Covid-related deaths, up slightly from the 274 recorded on Friday.
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