Boris Johnson has confirmed that national lockdown measures may be needed to deal with an “inevitable” second wave of coronavirus, as new figures showed infections could be doubling in the UK as fast as every seven days, The Independent reports.
New restrictions come into force on Tuesday across large areas of north-west England, the Midlands and West Yorkshire, bringing the total under some form of local lockdown to around 13.5 million people - more than one in five of the UK’s population.
Speaking during a visit to Oxford, the prime minister made clear national action was not being ruled out, though he said he did not want “the kind of lockdown we had in March and April” and wanted to keep schools and the economy open “as far as we possibly can”.
Mr Johnson said: “There’s no question that we are now seeing a second wave coming in. We’ve seen in France and Spain, across Europe. It’s been, I’m afraid, absolutely inevitable that we would see it in this country.”
He added: “We want to keep the schools open - that's going to happen. I will try and keep all parts of the economy open, as far as we possibly can.
“I don’t think anybody wants to go into a second lockdown but clearly, when you look at what ...
