Boris Johnson tightens screws as Britain’s Covid infections climb

The British government has tightened coronavirus restrictions due to a sharp rise in cases.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: ‘Let me be clear — these measures are not a second national lockdown.’ Picture: AFP

The British government has tightened coronavirus restrictions due to a sharp rise in cases, banning social gatherings of more than six people and making contact tracing mandatory in pubs and other venues.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new “rule of six” in ­England would replace a raft of regulations he admitted were “complicated and confusing”, and help reverse the rise of infections.

Britain has been hard hit by COVID-19, recording more than 41,500 deaths among people who tested positive — the highest rate in Europe, and one of the highest in the world.

After a national lockdown ­imposed in March, deaths and cases fell and Mr Johnson has in recent weeks urged people to ­return to work and to go out and spend money, as Britain has been plunged into a historic recession.

But there have been almost 3000 daily cases in recent days and new figures revealed a spike in cases among young people in particular — a trend seen elsewhere Europe.

“I wish that we did not have to take this step,” the Prime Minister said on Wednesday (Thursday AEST). “But, as your Prime Minister, I must do what is necessary to stop the spread of the virus and to save lives.”

There will be exceptions to the new six-person limit, which will come into force on Monday in ­England only, including for large families, workplaces, weddings and funerals.

In another change, venues such as pubs and restaurants will be obliged to request visitors’ details to allow contact tracing if necessary, similar to what Australia has been doing for several months.

Mr Johnson said that checks on people arriving from countries on the government’s quarantine list would also be stepped up.

“Let me be clear — these measures are not a second national lockdown. The whole point of them is to avoid a second national lockdown,” he said.

The Conservative leader, who is known for his optimism, did not repeat his previous suggestion that life could be back to normal by Christmas. But he outlined a “moonshot” plan to allow millions of people to be tested every day to allow those without coronavirus to circulate freely.

“We believe that new types of test which are simple, quick and scalable will become available. They use swabs or saliva and can turn round results in 90 or even 20 minutes,” Mr Johnson said.

“Crucially, it should be possible to deploy these tests on a far bigger scale than any country has yet achieved — literally millions of tests processed every single day.

“We are hopeful this approach will be widespread by the spring and, if everything comes together, it may be possible even for challenging sectors like theatres to have life much closer to normal before Christmas.”

The new testing goal is likely to raise eyebrows as the government is already struggling to meet soaring demand for tests, and such test do not exist.

Documents seen by the British Medical Journal suggest the new program could cost an eye-watering £100bn ($ billion ($178bn).

Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BMJ the plans bore the hallmark of a government “whose ambition far exceeds its ability to deliver”.

AFP