'Difficult winter ahead': London heads for stricter lockdown

[snoop1130]

'Difficult winter ahead': London heads for stricter lockdown

By Guy Faulconbridge

 

Commuters are seen at Canning Town station during the morning rush hour, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London Britain, October 15, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

 

LONDON (Reuters) - London, Europe's richest city with 9 million people, was heading for a tighter COVID-19 lockdown from midnight on Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to tackle a swiftly accelerating second coronavirus wave.

 

The disease, which emerged in China last year and has killed over a million people worldwide, is spreading in most parts of the United Kingdom, whose official death toll of 43,155 is the highest in Europe.

 

Anger, though, is rising over the economic, social and health costs of the biggest curtailment of freedoms since wartime: one former government adviser warned some people would have trouble clothing their children soon.

 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will address parliament at around 1030 GMT: he is expected to announce changes to the government's patchwork of three-tier local lockdowns.

 

London will move to "high" alert level from "medium" at midnight on Friday, The Times reported.

 

"It is my expectation that the government will today announce that London will shortly be moving into tier 2 or the high alert level of restrictions," added mayor Sadiq Khan, saying nobody wanted the measures but action had to come fast.

 

"I must warn Londoners: We've got a difficult winter ahead."

 

In the capital, a global financial centre rivalled only by New York, 11 boroughs are seeing more than 100 new cases a week per 100,000 people. The worst hit areas are Richmond, Hackney, the City of London, Ealing, Redbridge and Harrow.

 

'PEOPLE NOT COPING'

 

Manchester, the largest city in northern England, could also move to "very high" from "high".

 

Johnson, who won a landslide election in December, says his government is fighting a war against the virus and that some sacrifices are necessary to save lives.

 

But opponents say the government was too slow to act when the virus first struck, failed to protect the elderly in care homes, and bungled the testing system.

 

In areas in the high alert level, socialising outside households or support bubbles is not allowed indoors though work can continue and schools continue to operate.

 

The "very high" alert level forbids socialising, forces pubs and bars to close and prohibits travel outside the area.

 

The government's former homelessness adviser Louise Casey said the United Kingdom faces a "period of destitution" in which families "can't put shoes on" children.

 

"Are we actually asking people in places like Liverpool to go out and prostitute themselves, so that they could put food on the table?" Louise Casey told the BBC.

 

Liverpool is already in the highest-risk tier.

 

"There's this sense from Downing Street and from Westminster that people will make do. Well, they weren't coping before COVID," Casey added.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-15

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[natway09]

Sad reading, but if the people do not accept a lockdown now it could be a very bleak winter

[Logosone]

10 minutes ago, natway09 said:

Sad reading, but if the people do not accept a lockdown now it could be a very bleak winter

It will be a very bleak winter in the UK because of the lockdown.

 

Well done to Boris for resisting the more extreme demands of his "experts" who thus far have failed miserably to protect the UK population, however, Boris lacked the courage to call out the experts nonsense completely.

 

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/05/08/so-the-real-scandal-is-why-did-anyone-ever-listen-to-this-guy/

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professors-model-for-coronavirus-predictions-should-not-have-been-used-z7dqrkzzd

[nobodysfriend]

Exponential growth about everywhere in Europe , politicians who failed in imposing the right measures at the right time ( herd immunity BS in the UK ) .

This time the different strains of the virus seem to become even more contagious and aggressive , opposite to what asome erxperts predicted .

It is not 5 to 12 anymore , it is 12 o'clock already .

Only total lockdown could limit the spread now , but would ruin the economy , so won't happen ...

May be the ' 5 minute test ' from Oxford University could help to limit the spread , but so far nobody knows about it's accuracy and availability ...

Hard times are coming , better to prepare for this ...

 

 

[dunroaming]

I think that the government should have put in the circuit breaker to coincide with the schools half term.  That would have made sense and possibly have made Christmas more possible.  As it is we are on the back foot again, thanks to Johnson's faffing about.  No wonder people are rebelling against this car crash of a Prime Minister.