Boris Johnson is facing calls from the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales to call a meeting of the Government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee with the devolved administrations to consider the 'second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic'.
Ministers are considering tough new coronavirus restrictions as Boris Johnson said the long-feared the second wave of the pandemic has arrived in the UK.
With new cases of the disease in England estimated to have doubled over the past week, the Prime Minister said they were keeping “everything under review”.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: Outbreak at Forth Valley Royal Hospital as ward forced into lockdown
In England, the Government is thought to be looking at a temporary two-week “circuit break”, with new controls in an attempt to break the chain of transmission and prevent a new spike in the disease.
The move could see hospitality and leisure venues forced to close their doors again while socialising between households could be banned.
Speaking during a visit to Oxford on Friday, Mr Johnson said it was clear the second wave that had been spreading across Europe has now reached the UK.
“We are now seeing a second wave coming in. We are seeing it in France, in Spain, across Europe – it has been absolutely, I’m afraid, inevitable we were going to see it in this country,” he said.
However, there are concerns among some Tory MPs of the economic impact of further restrictions just as activity is picking up again following the first lockdown.
The warning comes less than a week after the new “rule of six” – outlawing social gatherings of more than six people – came into force, underlining the speed at which the virus had taken off again.
Earlier on Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced new restrictions for large parts of England’s North West, West Yorkshire and the Midlands.
(PA Graphics)
It means by Tuesday, when the measures come into force, around 13.5 million people in the UK will be living under some form of coronavirus controls.
The Prime Minister insisted he still wanted to avoid a second national lockdown.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Younger Scots make up fifth of new Covid hospital admissions
He added however: “Clearly when you look at what is happening, you have got to wonder whether we need to go further than the ‘rule of six’ that we have brought in on Monday.”
His comments came as new confirmed daily cases of coronavirus hit 4,322 – the highest since May 8.
Cases of the virus and hospital admissions for Covid-19 are doubling every seven to eight days in the UK, according to the new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Scotland's R number is above one and the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the R number – representing the number of people an infected person will pass the virus to – had risen to between 1.1 and 1.4, meaning cases could rise very quickly.
Last week, the R number was said to be between 1.0 and 1.2.
A coronavirus testing centre in east London (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)
Meanwhile, the ONS said its latest estimate “shows the number of infections has increased in recent weeks”.
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