UK on Brink of Lockdown as Figures Reveal Second Coronavirus Wave Imminent

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 31 Jul 2020 • 13:07

Latest figures reveal the UK could be close to new lockdowns. image: Wikipedia Commons

Panic sweeps across the UK over fears the nation will be forced into a second lockdown after the latest figures revealed a rise in cases of the invisible killer disease.

Covid infections on the rise in England

Official daily data on Thursday showed 846 new positive tests in Britain – the highest number of daily infections since June 28.

The ONS (The Office of National Statistics) revealed in the time between July 20 and 26, around one in 1,500 people not in care homes, hospitals or other institutional settings in England would test positive for Covid-19, compared to one in 2,000 the previous week.

The statistics from the infection survey showed this equates to an average of 35,700 people in England, who had Covid-19 during the most recent week.

ONS said during the most recent week, there were around 0.78 new Covid-19 infections for every 10,000 people in the community population in England, equating to around 4,200 new cases per day. The ONS said: “Modelling of the rate of new infections over time suggests that there is now some evidence that the incidence of new infections has increased in recent weeks.”

Late-night lockdown in Northern England

Labour has described the government’s late-night lockdown decision as “chaos” as areas of the north saw further restrictions from midnight. Shadow foreign secretary and Wigan MP, Lisa Nandy, said: “Nobody is arguing that the government shouldn’t move quickly where evidence exists that there has been a spike in Covid cases, and we have certainly seen that in Greater Manchester.

“So, it’s absolutely right that they do this. But I cannot describe to you the level of chaos that there was last night with this announcement.

“Because the government was essentially asking people to comply with new rules in just a few hours time without any detail about what those rules were going to be.”

Tracy Brabin, Labour MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire said it was “deeply chaotic.”

She said: “To announce this sort of measure late at night on Twitter caused an awful lot of anxiety in my community. It’s a new low.”