Second national lockdown is a possibility -U.K. government advisor
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A second national lockdown is a “possibility” in England which has reached a “rather precarious point” amid a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, a leading expert and government adviser said Sunday.
Peter Horby – who advises the government on the threat posed by respiratory viruses — told the BBC that local hospitals in the worst-affected areas in the north of England are beginning to feel the pressure of a possible second wave.
“We have a doubling time of about eight to 15 days so it is not long before those ICU beds could be full and we could be in a really difficult situation. So I am afraid we are going to have to make some very difficult choices and act very quickly,” he said.
“The numbers are not looking good at all,” Horby added.
“We’ve got an increase in cases, an increase in hospitalizations,” he said, adding that the UK is also starting to see the number of deaths increase.
On a positive note, Horby said that – compared to the first wave of Covid-19 infections — the UK now has a “much better testing and tracing capabilities, we have a much better understanding of the disease, and what’s great to see is that it appears that the risk of death in hospitalized patients is coming down.”
The comments by the Chair of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) came ahead of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s expected announcement Monday of new coronavirus restrictions in England.
Johnson plans to hold a telephone conference with cabinet members on Sunday as he prepares to bring in a new three-tier coronavirus restrictions regime, the UK’s PA Media reported.
