Boris Johnson insists he can avoid second England-wide lockdown

Imposing a second England wide lockdown is like our nuclear deterrent, It can be used, but we never want to do so

Patrick Vallance (chief scientific advisor to Boris Johnson), is saying that national measures might be necessary if there is a significant increase in infections across England, but Boris is dead set against the idea of a second country wide lockdown.

Although he cannot in all fairness take the possibility off the table if the situation got so bad that he couldn’t avoid it, Boris said: “I can’t abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don’t want to use it. And nor do I think we will be in that position again,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s not just that we’re getting much better at spotting the disease and isolating it locally, but we understand far more which groups it affects, how it works, how it’s transmitted, so the possibility of different types of segmentation, of enhanced shielding for particular groups, is now there.”

Last Friday the DHSS, (Department of Health and Social Security), set out how the implementation of local lockdowns will work if they are deployed, including what new powers the local authorities would have to control individual businesses, and outdoor spaces, ministers would also be able to step in at any time and impose draconian restrictions and travel bans, alongside ‘stay at home’ orders.

Vallance said: “As you release measures it is inevitable as you get more contacts that you will see more cases … Come winter, the challenges will be very much greater and of course there is a risk that this could need national measures,”

Vallance warned: “Everyone that I’ve spoken to thinks it’s highly likely that this disease will continue to circulate and will come back in waves. And therefore the measures of reducing contact to reduce spread, the sorts of social distancing measures that we’ve talked about, and the hygiene measures that go along with that, will be necessary.”