WINTER IS COMING
A NEW UK lockdown with more "stringent" measures on the cards must come soon, a top SAGE scientists warned today, as Boris was told a ban on households mixing may be needed.
Professor Chris Whitty is understood to have told the PM that a 10pm curfew and extra face masks might not be enough to get the epidemic under control again.
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It came as Dominic Raab today urged the nation to follow the rules to avoid a Christmas lockdown.
SAGE member John Edmunds blasted the Government's new measures for "not going far enough" and warns more "stringent" measures will have to be put in place across the whole of the UK in the coming months.
Professor Edmunds, who is the head of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told Radio 4 today: "I don't think the measures have gone anywhere near far enough.
"We have to put stringent measures in place, and as fast as possible.
"I suspect we will see very stringent measures coming into place throughout the UK again at some point. But it will be too late again.
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"We will have let the epidemic double and double and double again until we do take those measures.
"We didn't react quick enough in March, we haven't learned enough... and we are about to repeat it."
He said the R rate was able to be brought down during the national lockdown from 2.7 to around 0.7. The R rate is now thought to be about 1.4 and Boris has said he wanted to get it below one again.
And Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College, a member of the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag), told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I would think if we wait two or three weeks, it will be too late.
"It ought to be instituted sooner rather than later."
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On whether a ban on household mixing might be on the cards, he added: "I think that may well be coming very soon."
Ministers haven't ruled out a full lockdown but say they don't want to harm the economy and threaten kids' education again.
Last night Boris said: "If we were forced into a new national lockdown, that would threaten not just jobs and livelihoods but the loving human contact on which we all depend.
"We must do all we can to avoid going down that road again.
"But if people don’t follow the rules we have set out, then we must reserve the right to go further."
Ministers and advisers have been saying for days how household transmission is a key driver of the virus, but the PM chose not to take action on it yesterday in his crackdown speech.
Yesterday Scotland followed Northern Ireland and introduced a ban on households mixing indoors.
The Times reports that Professor Whitty agreed with the measures that are happening in Scotland at the moment.
And his deputies, Jonathan Van Tam and Jenny Harries, also expressed concern the measures don't go far enough.
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A No10 spokesperson said today: "The PM worked with Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance throughout the process of pulling this package together and it is agreed that taken as a whole that this package will play a significant role in bringing down the rate of infection."
It was also reported that scientists did not know whether the 10pm curfew will work.
University College London Professor Robert West, a member of Sage, said: "Closing early will have some impact but I don't think it will be anything like enough, even with the other measures announced, to stop the increase."
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A No10 spokesperson added: "There are also scientists on the other side saying we have gone too far, the PM canvassed full range of opinions."
The PM is bringing in a range of new measures to try and curb the virus, but they are designed to avoid a full lockdown like in March.
He will ban people from being in pubs or restaurants after 10pm and force them to offer delivery food only. People should work from home again if they can.
Face masks will have to be worn when people come into venues, but they can take them off to eat or drink. The fines for not wearing one will double to £200.
Indoor sport with more than six people will be banned under the rule of six.
There will be tougher enforcement powers too, and weddings will be slashed down from a maximum of 30, to 15.
The return of live sport will now not go ahead for October 1.
Nicola Sturgeon said this morning she had to act to stop Covid "running out of control" again.
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She told Good Morning Britain: "If we take tough action now we might actually manage to be under these restrictions for a shorter period of time than we will end up being if we delay that action."
And the First Minister of Wales asked people in the country to "think every time they make a journey" and avoid unnecessary travel.
Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If it's a necessary journey then of course you must make it.
"But if its a journey that can be avoided you will be safer and other people will be safer the fewer journeys you make and the fewer people you meet."
This morning Dominic Raab admitted they might need one if the current measures don't work.
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He told Sky News: "We've always said we've got a sort of repository of measures in the arsenal to take. I don't think we would speculate about what further could be done.
"But the reality is they will be more intrusive or we could end up in a national lockdown. That is what we want to avoid."
Mr Raab said if "everyone plays by the rules" then a national lockdown may not be needed at Christmas.
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"Let's hope that we can get through the winter months if we take these measures and if everyone plays by the rules, and we go into Christmas not needing to go into that national lockdown with all the impact on society and families but also the damage it would do to businesses."
Boris Johnson threatens national lockdown in TV address and warns nation 'your cough could be someone's death knell' 1-1
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