BORIS Johnson is likely to have to follow Nicola Sturgeon in imposing a ban on visiting between households, the Prime Minister has been told by his chief medical officer.
Professor Chris Whitty is understood to believe more restrictions are inevitable as winter approaches and that measures including a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants will not bring the epidemic under control, according to a report today.
Johnson claimed to have struck a “delicate balance” between virus control and “sheltering the economy”.
But his strategy appeared insufficient when Scotland and Northern Ireland both announced bans across the countries on visiting other households indoors.
Unveiling the new measures the First Minister justified the move across Scotland saying officials “advise that we must take account of the fact that household interaction is a key driver of transmission”.
The Times reports today that chief medical officers from all four UK nations met on Monday to agree advice to their respective governments. The paper reported that it understood that Professor Whitty concurred with Smith.
Jonathan Van Tam and Jenny Harries, Professor Whitty’s deputies, are understood to have also expressed concern in meetings that the measures did not go far enough.
All three, however, accepted that it was reasonable for Johnson to try more limited measures first.
Johnson told the Commons yesterday he would “deploy greater firepower, with significantly greater restrictions” if the R rate of infections did not fall below one.
“I fervently want to avoid taking this step,” he told MPs. “But we will only be able to avoid it if our new measures work and our behaviour changes.”
In a bid to curtail the virus, the Prime Minister announced new measures for England including advice for office workers to work from home and fines for people who broke rules on social distancing and mask wearning. He said the measures would likely be in place for six months.
He also announced the army would be on standby to help the police enforce the coronavirus laws.
“We will spare no effort in developing vaccines, treatments, new forms of mass testing, but unless we palpably make progress we should assume that the restrictions that I have announced will remain in place for perhaps six months,” he said.
“For the time being, this virus is a fact of our lives and I must tell the house and the country that our fight against it will continue.”
In Scotland the ban on visiting other households which the First Minister advised people should comply with today and the 10pm pub curfew, which comes into force on Friday, are to be reviewed in three weeks time.
She has also warned additional measures could be introduced if the new curbs fail to reduce the spread of the virus.
The latest figures published by the European Centre for Disease Control show that the UK has had the highest number of deaths from Covid 19 in Europe.
The centre reported that by 22 September 41,788 people in the UK had died as a result of Covid 19, compared to Italy which had the second highest death toll at 35,744. Germany which has been praised for its handling of the virus has had 9396 Covid 19 fatalities.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel