UK government has recently warned it could re-impose a national lockdown across England to counter the coronavirus pandemic, as the numbers of patients are doubling every eight days.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC television: “We want to avoid a national lockdown, but we’re prepared to do it if we need to.”
He said: “We’re prepared to do what it takes both to protect lives and to protect livelihoods”, warning of more local measures to come after restrictions were placed on swathes of northeast England from Friday.
Hancock said: “we’ve also sadly seen that the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus is doubling about every eight days, so we do need to take action.”
Government scientists have reportedly proposed a blanket lockdown to come into force across England over two weeks in October, to coincide with English schools’ half-term holiday.
Hancock further said the government was doing everything we possibly can for the cavalry that’s on the horizon of the vaccine and mass testing.
The government has faced stinging criticism this week over the failure to achieve the world-beating testing and tracing system it promised would be in place over the summer months.
