Covid-19 update: Britain might need a three-week lockdown

Summary

• Experts warn that UK might need to consider a national lockdown to contain the deadly virus
• New restrictions to be announced by the Welsch government
• Manchester region ask for financial support to survive stricter coronavirus rules
• It is also looking for an extension of the furlough scheme
• Government enhancing its test capacity along with improvement in test delivery time

Jeremy Farrar, member, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, UK government said that the country needs to impose a 3-week lockdown with immediate effect so that the second wave of rising coronavirus cases can be snubbed.

The current set of tighter restrictions across the nation may not be able to lower the infection rate to the desired extent, he lamented.

Response to curb the infections has to be immediate else the crisis could worsen and get elongated, stressed Farrar.

On the other hand, Robert Jenrick, housing secretary, UK said that a local lockdown might have to be imposed very soon at Manchester. He was hopeful that a deal could be finalised with the local leaders at Manchester as soon as possible. Any delay could put lives at risk and could be harmful for the British economy in the long-term, he added.

At the same time, Jenrick was of the opinion that a nation-wide lockdown is not a good idea.

The local leaders were right in their own way, said political analysts. They want the government to agree to providing decent financial aid so that the local businesses can be well-protected.

Further, the Welsh government is also planning to announce new measures to contain the virus soon. A government spokesperson said that certainly a different set of measures are required to stop this deadly disease from spreading fast.

On Sunday 18 October 2020, the daily number of corona positive cases reported across the UK was 16,982. The number of cases reported a day back on 17 October was 16, 171.              

Financial support

Jenrick had indicated that the Greater Manchester area might get a government aid similar to other tier-three alert areas such as Liverpool city and Lancashire. He was concerned about the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Manchester region.

While the Liverpool city region received a fiscal stimulus of £44 million, the corresponding amount for Lancashire was £42 million.

Based on the size of population, the rough estimate of a comparable value for the Greater Manchester region should be £75 million, as per industry experts.

Boris Johnson, British PM had earlier mentioned that in case the local leaders did not agree for the tier-three set of restrictions, he might have to intervene.

Andy Burnham, Mayor, Greater Manchester wants the government to bring back the coronavirus job retention scheme (popularly called the furlough scheme), according to media reports. Rishi Sunak, chancellor, UK treasury had announced a new scheme known as the Jobs Support scheme, to replace the furlough that expires on 31 October 2020. The jobs support scheme offers a two-third salary support for people who are unable to attend work due to the tier-three restrictions.

Burnham also needed to communicate more with the local constituencies before freezing details with the government, expressed the local MPs. Some local leaders are not in favour of replacing tier-2 restrictions with the next level tier-3 ones for the hospitality industry in the region. Instead, they want more political power to close down the venues who violate the Covid-19 guidelines.

It is suspected that the hospitality sector would face heavy job losses in case of a temporary business closure.

New tests

Johnson informed that Britain was trying to develop a test capacity which could provide results within 15 minutes. These tests would also be simpler than before, apart from being faster, he added. The UK government aims to undertake 0.5 million tests every day by the end of October 2020.

At the same time, there could be challenges such as quickly delivering a large quantity of swabs to the test centers, explained Sir John Bell from the Oxford University.

However, medical experts warn that despite all these testing arrangements, the country would still be struggling to keep the coronavirus infections under check.

Right now, the nation is struggling to get the test results delivered within a day. A successful test and trace system can work only if the test results are returned within 24 hours, told Graham Medley, member, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, UK. He stressed that the test capacity could be curbed if required, but not the speed of the tests, as it is a crucial part of contact tracing.

Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse suggested that using small labs for testing coronavirus, along with the big sized private testing chains might speed up the delivery of test results. Smaller labs do not have a long line of communication and usually work faster, he elaborated.

Areas under tier-2

Currently many regions in England face tier-2 (high risk) restrictions. Some of these include the north-east, London, Essex, York, Chesterfield, and Elmbridge. A high-risk tier-2 region has to follow the below listed guidelines:

• No socialising with a non-member of your household
• Tradespeople allowed go to a home for work
• Rule of six to apply for indoor socialisation and at the places of worship
• Pubs and restaurants to shut down by 10 pm
• School and universities to remain open