ENGLAND may have to follow Scotland and ban household visits to stop the spread of coronavirus, Boris Johnson has reportedly been warned by the Chief Medical Officer.
Professor Chris Whitty is understood to have told the PM that a 10pm curfew and extra face masks might not be enough to get the epdemic under control again.
Yesterday Scotland followed Northern Ireland and introduced a ban on households mixing indoors.
Ministers and advisers have been saying for days how household transmission is a key driver of the virus, but the PM chose not to take action on it yesterday in his crackdown speech.
The Times reports that Professor Whitty agreed with the measures that are happening in Scotland at the moment.
And Jonathan Van Tam and Jenny Harries also expressed concern the measures don’t go far enough.
The PM is bringing in a range of new measures to try and curb the virus, but they are designed to avoid a full lockdown like in March.
He will ban people from being in pubs or restaurants after 10pm and force them to offer delivery food only. People should work from home again if they can.
Face masks will have to be worn when people come into venues, but they can take them off to eat or drink. The fines for not wearing one will double to £200.
Indoor sport with more than six people will be banned under the rule of six.
There will be tougher enforcement powers too, and weddings will be slashed down from a maximum of 30, to 15.
The return of live sport will now not go ahead for October 1.
It came as SAGE member John Edmunds blasted the Government’s new measures for “not going far enough” and warns more “stringent” measures will be put in place across the whole of the UK in the coming months.
Professor Edmunds, who is the head of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told Radio 4 today: “I don’t think the measures have gone anywhere near far enough.
“We have to put stringent measures in place, and as fast as possible.
“I suspect we will see very stringent measures coming into place throughout the UK again at some point. But it will be too late again.
“We will have let the epidemic double and double and double again until we do take those measures.
“We didn’t react quick enough in March, we haven’t learned enough… and we are about to repeat it.”
Ministers haven’t ruled out a full lockdown but say they don’t want to harm the economy and threaten kids’ education again.
This morning Dominic Raab admitted they might need one if the current measures don’t work.
He told Sky News: “We’ve always said we’ve got a sort of repository of measures in the arsenal to take. I don’t think we would speculate about what further could be done.
“But the reality is they will be more intrusive or we could end up in a national lockdown. That is what we want to avoid.”
Mr Raab said if “everyone plays by the rules” then a national lockdown may not be needed at Christmas.
“Let’s hope that we can get through the winter months if we take these measures and if everyone plays by the rules, and we go into Christmas not needing to go into that national lockdown with all the impact on society and families but also the damage it would do to businesses.”
