Dominic Raab today hinted the Government could introduce a new Tier Four set of even stricter coronavirus restrictions as he refused to rule out another national lockdown. The Government’s current local lockdown system is based on three tiers but there are fears that even the most draconian rules in Tier Three are not enough to … Read more
Britain’s coronavirus R rate has dropped again, according to the government’s scientific advisers. SAGE today estimated the reproduction rate – the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects – stood between 1.1 and 1.3. The number must stay below one for an outbreak to shrink. This marks the second week in a row that the group’s … Read more
Yorkshire MPs have railed against the Government’s decision to push the area into Tier Three lockdown from this weekend, branding the move ‘disappointing’ and warning it will ‘ruin people’s lives’. West Yorkshire will be placed under the highest level of lockdown restrictions from midnight on Sunday, affecting around 2million people living in Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, … Read more
Boris Johnson has been told that every hospital in England will be full by December 17 unless he orders more lockdowns. The blunt warning emerged a day after a leaked Sage committee document revealed that ministers had been told to prepare for a ‘worst case scenario’ of 85,000 deaths. A well-placed source said: ‘Ministers have … Read more
Confusion over the true scale of Britain’s second wave of Covid-19 was sparked today after official data showed the UK’s daily cases are not spiralling out of control — despite warnings from a Government-funded surveillance study that infections may be doubling every nine days. Department of Health bosses recorded 23,065 new coronavirus cases, which is … Read more
The Chancellor today addressed the country’s burning questions as he discussed his fresh financial package in a Twitter Q and A session. Rishi Sunak turned on the public spending taps again last week when he announced an emergency bailout for businesses and the self-employed that will cost up to £22billion. But today he was grilled by … Read more
Britain’s second coronavirus wave is already on track to surpass the Government’s ‘worst case scenario’ projection of 85,000 deaths, concerning data suggests. In a newly-published leaked paper that was circulated through Downing Street over summer, SAGE – the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – warned that daily Covid-19 fatalities could rise to as many as … Read more
Six million more people in England are poised to be stung by Tier Three lockdown restrictions this week amid spiralling coronavirus cases, as Number 10 continues to rely on its ‘whack-a-mole’ strategy to contain the disease. Residents in the West Midlands, North East and West Yorkshire look set to be the next dragged into the … Read more
A coronavirus lockdown row erupted today after Number 10‘s scientific advisers called for another national shutdown to curtail Britain’s Covid-19 resurgence. Independent experts questioned why the ‘incredibly harmful intervention’ was being considered when Britain successfully squashed its epidemic earlier in the year and the NHS is still nowhere near full capacity. Oxford University’s Professor Carl Heneghan … Read more
Number 10‘s publicly-available coronavirus statistics are ‘disparate’ and mask the true scale of England’s second wave, top scientists have warned. Researchers from University College London warned there are ‘significant gaps in data quality, consistency and availability’ which make tracking the virus’ trajectory near-impossible. They slammed ministers for cherry-picking figures — which are ‘often from disparate sources … Read more