Expert warns PM is in serious danger of leaving it ‘too late’ for national lockdown

An expert has warned that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in real danger of leaving it far “too late” to place England into a short national lockdown.

If the Prime Minister does not place England into a full national lockdown now, then it will be ineffective in bringing down the infections across the country, the government scientific advisory group has warned.

Professor Andrew Hayward, from University College London (UCL), institute of epidemiology and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told Sky News that localised restrictions has only placed a “bit of a break” on the transmission rate.

Professor Haywood warned that the government must impose “more invasive action” across the whole of the country to prevent the second wave from taking control.

He said that the localised tiered approach had “put a bit of a break” on the infection rate and that the virus has slowed down a little across all tier 3 areas.

However, Professor Haywood said that this is not the “same as turning it around.”

The Professor from UCL and who is the member of SAGE warned that a three-week lockdown is needed before Christmas in order to bring the infection rate down.

The Professor told Sky News, “Last time we had lockdown which went on four months and one of the reasons for that was because we acted too late.

“And I think we’re in danger of walking into that situation again whereby we let cases increase to a level where a short lockdown is not going to be sufficiently effective.”

The government SAGE advisory added, “It’s more effective to act earlier, you save more lives the earlier you act, I think this needs to be way before Christmas and quite soon.”

This comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, that Europe is now, once again the epicentre of Europe and that governments are “well behind” the fight.

The executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, Dr Michael Ryan said that governments “take some serious acceleration” with “much more” stricter measures to combat the virus.

Dr Ryan told a press conference, “There’s no question that the European region is an epicentre for disease right now.

“Right now we are well behind this virus in Europe so getting ahead of it is going to take some serious acceleration in what we do and maybe much more comprehensive nature of measures that are going to be needed.”

The French President Emmanuel Macron announced to the nation on live TV on Wednesday evening,  that France will now enter into a second full national lockdown from Friday.

The second lockdown means that no one is allowed to travel between regions anywhere in France and all external borders outside of the Schengen area will be closed.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel also announced on Wednesday evening that Germany will enter into a second national lockdown from 2 November.

It also expected that Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic could enter into national lockdowns within days as they also as recording exceptionally high cases.

The governments scientific advisors SAGE have warned Downing Street that by December, virus rates will surpass the levels seen in the North across the whole of England.

Professor Sir Mark Walport, who is the government’s former chief scientific adviser has warned around 25,000 people could be in hospital with the virus by the end of November, if infections continue to rise.

Professor Walport suggested the death toll will continue to increase as there are “many people that are vulnerable” and very few people have had coronavirus.

By Christmas the whole of England could be under strict tier 3 measures, as government modelling by scientists warns of the high hospital admissions by the end of November.

Professor Walport’s grim warning comes as there are fears the second wave could be more deadly than what happened in spring.

This comes as Johnson is under growing pressure from MPs and scientists are warning that a second lockdown must happen as second wave will kill more people.

Scientists are saying we need a national lockdown and have been urging this for weeks, but Johnson has refused to do this for the sake of the economy, thus far.

The Telegraph reported that total death from the virus now tops 61,000, as the Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) projections has now led to intense lobbying from experts.

The Prime Minister’s very own chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance has and continues to call for more drastic action to be taken to save tens of thousands of lives.

A government spokeswoman said on Wednesday, that Ministers are receiving advice “from a wide range of scientific and medical experts,” and added that the latest figures are “concerning.”

The UK’s daily coronavirus death toll has soared by more than half in just a week, with 367 deaths reported across the UK on Tuesday, which was the highest level for five months.

On Wednesday, the UK recorded 24,701 new cases, up from Tuesday where, 22,885 people had tested positive.

310 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19, down from 367 deaths reported on Tuesday.