UK heading for second lockdown

The UK could witness about 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day by mid-October without further action, the government’s chief scientific adviser has warned. This would be anticipated to lead to about 200 deaths per day a month after that. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson considers whether to introduce further measures in England. On Sunday, a further 3,899 daily cases and 18 deaths were reported in the UK. At the moment it is believed that the epidemic is to be doubled around every seven days. This requires speed and action in order to be able to bring that down. The accelerating case numbers could not be an increase in testing as there is also an expansion in positivity of the tests done. About 70,000 people in the UK are estimated to have the disease and approximately 6,000 per day are spreading which is based on an ONS study. It is attainable that some vaccine could be available before the end of the year in little amounts for precise groups but the first six months of next year is not predicted. The UK government’s medical advisers are clearly concerned about the rise in cases that have been observed in recent weeks. However, they were also at sorrow to say it was not an assessment. Better cure for those who get very sick are now available, while the government is in a good position to safeguard the exposed groups. Mortality rates from Covid-19 were substantially larger than seasonal flu, which killed about 7,000 annually or 20,000 in a bad year. West Yorkshire and the Midlands will counter further local restrictions from Tuesday, taking the number of people affected by accelerated local measures in the UK to approximately 13.5 million. On Sunday, the prime minister held a meeting to discuss likely further measures for England.
Labour Party has advised the government to shun a second national lockdown. This rapid rise in infections was not certain, but a result of the government’s inefficiencies and failure to put in place an efficient testing system. There must be a national effort to prevent another national lockdown. The government must do what it takes to halt another lockdown, which would cause unthinkable harm to British economy and people’s welfare.Health minister refuses to rule out another national lockdown as 21 excess die from disease. New coronavirus infections are rising hastily across the country, with hospital admissions increasing twice every eight days. The UK has announced the fifth largest number of deaths from COVID-19 in the world, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that that a lockdown was a last action, but that the government would do whatever possible it takes to solve the virus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was attacked by opposition politicians for his beginning mild response to the outbreak and the government has battled to make sure sufficient testing in recent weeks. Johnson has said he does not desire a second lockdown and the government would do everything in their power to put a stop it. The UK not long ago introduced a rule of six, restricting social gatherings to six people. But observer have said this action was insufficient given more liberal attitudes to social distancing in restaurants and pubs in the middle of a government drive to get encourage people to return to the office. COVID-19 cases started to accelerate again in Britain in September, with between 3,000 and 4,000 positive tests recorded daily in the last week, but that is again behind France and its more than 10,000 cases a day. On Thursday, UK recorded 21 deaths from the disease, taking into consideration the total under the government’s accounting procedure to about 41,705. Leading scientists are urging the British government have proposed a two-week national lockdown in October to try to solve the growing number of cases. Since schools will be closed for seven days at half-term, an extra week to that will have limited influence on education.
Covid-19 arrived in the UK in late January and the UK suffered a three-month long lockdown from March 23 to get the virus under control. Every region of the UK has been affected, with London countering the peak when coronavirus first arrived in UK. In spite of declining cases countrywide, on June 29 Leicester became the first city in to be dropped back into lockdown after public health officials voiced fear at a substantial rise in positive Covid-19 tests. From that time a number of regions have again entered local lockdown following a rise in cases, as the virus menaced a second rise. People in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford, Blackburn, Preston and other areas are banned from holding indoor meetings involving people from different households. NHS was struck by a number of difficult challenges. When the virus hit in Britain, NHS workers complained that a shortage of essential personal protective equipment put them at danger. Some staff was forced to wear bin bags as makeshift protection. The Government was condemned for shipping millions of pieces of PPE to Europe, in spite of the shortage, and for purchasing a huge quantity of masks and gowns, bought from factories in China and Turkey, that were found to be worst quality. The Government ordered about 8,000 ventilators, used to treat severely sick Covid-19 patients, with a promise that the first batch would be in hospitals by April. By June 10, merely about 5,000 new ventilators had been delivered to the NHS and ministers decided that hospitals had an ample supply. The British Government’s policy to prevent the NHS being filled with massive coronavirus cases led to elderly people being discharged from hospitals back into care homes, to clear space in wards. This was done without testing for infection.
It emerged that Public Health England had warned the Government about doing this in February, and officials were criticised for not testing patients before they were transferred, despite repeated warnings from care home managers that it was seeding infections among the most vulnerable.
Contact tracing: The UK was much-criticised for abandoning contact tracing on March 13 while other countries, which have achieved a lower death toll, continued to trace contacts and cut off routes of transmission for the virus. The UK’s first attempt at a contact tracing app was abandoned in May, after an unsuccessful trial on the Isle of Wight. Scotland and Northern Ireland currently have their own independent apps, while the latest version of the England and Wales app is expected to launch in late September.
NHS deaths and staff shortages: A number of doctors, nurses and NHS staff died from coronavirus. At the height of the outbreak, many NHS staff were sick or forced to quarantine because of suspected exposure. MPs were told in July that hospitals had failed to test their workers for coronavirus because they feared having to send too many of them home, when almost half were infected at the peak of the pandemic. In March, anticipating a shortage of NHS staff, Health Secretary Matt Hancock launched a call for a UK “army” of 750,000 volunteers. Many medical students joined the efforts, and retired doctors and nurses came back to work to fight the virus.
Non-Covid cases: A combination of lockdown, people’s fear of the pandemic and prioritising emergency capacity means that there is now a tremendous NHS case backlog. Particularly affected are routine operations and cancer treatments, with some hospitals described as being “at a stand-still”.
How the UK got into and out of a national lockdown
On March 23, Boris Johnson placed the UK on a police-enforced lockdown with drastic measures in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
The Prime Minister ordered people only to leave their homes under a list of “very limited purposes”, banning mass gatherings and ordering the closure of non-essential shops.
Mr Johnson announced his phase two strategy on Sunday May 10, outlining a gradual easing of the restrictions, rather than a wholesale lifting of the lockdown. However, reaction to his speech was fierce, with many accusing the Prime Minister of confusing the British public.
On Monday May 11 Mr Johnson published his “roadmap” to leave lockdown, setting out a three-phase strategy to gradually lift the current restrictions.
Mr Johnson later announced on Thursday May 28 that the five tests to ease lockdown had been met, confirming that gatherings of up to six people could take place in outdoor spaces from Monday June 1.
On June 23 – exactly three months after the country was put into lockdown – Mr Johnson hailed the beginning of the end of Britain’s “national hibernation”.
The Prime Minister allowed families and friends to mingle indoors and even go on holiday together from Saturday, July 4. This day, which became known as Super Saturday, also saw pubs, restaurants and hairdressers reopen, as the two metre social distancing rule was reduced to one metre.
But Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, warned that many of new social distancing measures would have to remain in place “until this time next year” because a coronavirus vaccine is still a long way off.
On Friday July 17, Mr Johnson set out his roadmap for ending lockdown, which allowed remaining leisure facilities to reopen and all beauty treatments to resume from August 1. Mr Johnson also relaxed official guidance advising people to “work from home if you can” in a bid to restart the economy.
The government is keen to avoid another blanket lockdown. However, preventing a national lockdown will depend on whether or not there is a second wave of the virus and how effectively the Government can respond if the infection rate rises quickly in multiple areas of the UK.
As of Monday, September 14, gatherings of more than six people are banned in England. The Government has introduced these tough new measures to combat a sharp rise in coronavirus infection rates.