Boris Johnson said a second wave of coronavirus in the UK is “inevitable” and urges everyone to stick to the ‘rule of six’ to avoid another national lockdown.
The Prime Minister addressed the issue on a visit to Oxfordshire on Friday, September 18.
Speaking of a second wave hitting Europe, he says “it’s been inevitable that we’d see it in this country.”
Although Mr Johnson said he did not “want to go into bigger lockdown measures”, it is understood that tighter social distancing rules might be necessary.
A new three-tiered set of restrictions is being considered. The plan would aim to avoid a national lockdown but could stop household-to-household contact.
The first tier would be the level of measures currently in place in most parts of England now – with social distancing the key aspect. The second tier would involve what is currently being imposed in north-east of England – curfews on hospitality venues and a ban on meetings between households.
The final third tier would involve stricter lockdown measures.
If this plan is put into action, “Tier two” restrictions are expected to be imposed on a region-by-region basis, but it is thought likely that they could eventually cover almost all of the UK.
BBC reports that the government was considering a short period of tighter rules across England that could be announced in the next week, which could involve closing hospitality venues.
Earlier on Friday (September 18), Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus across parts of the North West, Midlands and West Yorkshire.
It means by Tuesday, when the measures come into force, around 13.5 million people in the UK will be living under some form of coronavirus controls.
However, the Prime Minister insisted he still wanted to avoid a second national lockdown.
“Clearly when you look at what is happening, you’ve got to wonder whether we need to go further than the rule of six that we brought in,” the prime minister said, referring to measures introduced on Monday.
He added that “the British people have done an amazing job – they’ve brought that peak down by discipline” but that “people find it difficult to keep this up, it’s difficult to maintain that discipline for a long time”.
It comes as the UK has recorded another 4,322 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
In Nottingham, the number of new cases rise up to 94 in the last week, according to data registered by September 19.
By Olimpia Zagnat
Credit image: BBC.