Coronavirus: ‘More costly’ restrictions could be needed, warns Boris Johnson

PM insists the British public is not ready to ‘throw in the sponge’ in fight against disease

Boris Johnson has appealed for the British people not to “throw in the sponge” in the fight against coronavirus, as his scientific advisers warned that the pandemic is not under control.   

In a chilling warning at a 10 Downing Street press conference, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the UK is “definitely heading in the wrong direction”, with rising case numbers and hospitalisations. And chief medical officer Chris Whitty added: “We have got a long winter ahead of us.”

Mr Johnson said that the “only way” to beat the disease was for the public to keep making sacrifices, no matter how “fed up” the are with restrictions on their social and work lives.

He firmly rejected the argument heard increasingly loudly from Tory backbenches that government must allow life to return to normal and concentrate on protecting the most vulnerable rather than shutting down society in the hope of rooting out the virus.

And he said that he would not hesitate to impose “more costly” restrictions if the evidence showed they were needed. 

The latest statistics showed 7,108 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, only slightly down on the record 7,143 reported on Tuesday. A further 71 fatalities brought the country’s total death toll from Covid-19 to 42,143.

With local leaders calling for a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown to stem rapidly escalating cases in Liverpool, local restrictions were announced for parts of north Wales.

When they come into effect in Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Wrexham on Thursday, one third of the entire UK population will be under some form of additional local control.

Mr Johnson suffered a humiliating rebuke over the “totally unsatisfactory” way the local restrictions have been introduced from Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who accused him of treating parliament with “contempt” by avoiding debate and votes on them.

Health secretary Matt Hancock later offered a concession to rebel Tories by promising to give MPs a vote “wherever possible” on significant future regulations which impact the whole of the UK or England.

Sir Keir Starmer called for an “urgent review” of the local lockdown system, pointing out that Luton has been the only one of 48 areas able to emerge from controls after successfully bringing infection numbers down.

“There’s got to be a national effort to prevent a second lockdown,” said the Labour leader.

“But the government’s side of the bargain here is to have a very clear strategy for keeping that infection rate down, and we don’t see that strategy.”

Fresh from his apology for garbling the latest legal requirements for northeast England, Mr Johnson admitted that the patchwork of local measures across the country had led to “various discrepancies or complications and complexities” in official advice.

But he urged the public to keep following the advice and instructions on social distancing and curfews, some of which now carry fines of up to £10,000 for breaches.

”No matter how impatient we may be, how fed up we may become, there is only one way of doing this,” said the prime minister.

“And that’s by showing a collective forbearance, common sense and willingness to make sacrifices for the safety of others.”

The PM acknowledged that there was so far no clear evidence of an impact from his “rule of six” limit on the size of social gatherings, introduced a fortnight ago, or the 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants imposed last week.

But he warned: “If the evidence requires it, we will not hesitate to take further measures that would, I’m afraid, be more costly than the ones we have got in effect now.”

Mr Johnson said: "I know some people will think we should give up and let the virus take its course despite the huge loss of life that would potentially entail.

"I have to say I profoundly disagree. I don't think that is what the British people want. I don't think they want to throw in the sponge. They want to fight and defeat this virus and that is what we are going to do."

Standing alongside the prime minister at what Mr Johnson said would be the first in a regular series of Downing Street press conferences as the second wave of coronavirus takes hold, Sir Patrick said: “It’s very clear that rates are going up - we don’t have this under control at the moment.”

Hinting that he believed further restrictions are necessary, he went on: “The decisions that need to be made are clearly very difficult. None of them are risk-free.

“They all come with some cost, and that is human cost in some form or another. Science can provide advice on the situation, ministers need to make decisions on when and how to act.”

Earlier, Prof Whitty warned that the number of patients in hospitals and intensive care with Covid-19 was increasing, with a “significant rise” in positive tests in the northeast and northwest of England, and the Yorkshire and Humber region.

“The direction of travel for both hospitals and intensive care is going in the wrong direction, particularly in these areas that have seen rapid increases in cases,” he said.

Mr Johnson said that he did not want to impose a second national lockdown, and believed there were signs that the disease may be “a more localised phenomenon” than in the spring.

But Sir Patrick cautioned: “It is worse in certain areas, but there is evidence of spread everywhere and we need to be mindful of that – everyone needs to take precautions across the country.”