COVID-19 – Calls for second UK lockdown as death toll surges

AFP, London. – The United Kingdom recorded 310 deaths on Wednesday of people who tested positive for Covid-19. Its the second day in a row with more than 300 deaths, posing a serious challenge to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s strategy of only local restrictions.

Between October 16 and 25, 128 out of every 10,000 people in England were infected with coronavirus, up from 60 per 10,000 in the previous week, according to the study published by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori.

The reproduction rate, or Rt number, rose to 1.6 nationally, which means that every 10 infected infect another 16 on average.

The prevalence is highest in the north of England, but infections are increasing in all age groups and in all regions, the study notes.

Johnson has so far rejected calls for a second national lockdown, similar to the one decreed in March, due to the devastating impact it would have on an economy already hard hit by the first.

The Sun newspaper The Sun says that scientists who advise the government are calling for stricter regulations and the opposition Labour Party is pressuring the executive to institute a general lockdown of two or three weeks to stop the spread of the virus.

The UK is the worst-hit country in Europe, with over 45,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19.

Each of the four nations that comprise it has jurisdiction in matters of Health and decides its policies against the pandemic. Thus the more than three million inhabitants of Wales were confined by their regional government last Friday and until November 9.