Senior advisers to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government on Saturday said that it was too early to lift the lockdown, just two days before the UK is to further relax COVID-19 restrictions.
As people reveled in soaring temperatures by flocking to beaches and parks, several members of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told ministers that they risked a second wave of infection.
One — epidemiologist John Edmunds — said the move was “a political decision.”
Photo: AFP
Another prominent scientist, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and also a member of SAGE, warned explicitly on Twitter that the government was wrong on its timing.
“Covid-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England,” Farrar wrote.
“TTI [test, trace and isolate] has to be in place, fully working, capable [of] dealing [with] any surge immediately, locally responsive, rapid results & infection rates have to be lower.”
From today, the British government is to begin easing lockdown rules imposed in March and partially reopen schools in England and allow up to six people from different households to meet outside.
Reacting to the warnings, British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden said it was “absolutely right to urge caution.”
However, he said that “the government scientific advisory group consists of more than 50 scientists, all of whom will have their different perspectives ... the government takes a collective view on the entire advice from SAGE.”
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam, speaking alongside Dowden at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing, added that SAGE had a “high degree of confidence” that continued social distancing and other measures combined with effective contact tracing would not push the so-called R transmission rate up above the critical one figure.
Put simply, the R number is the calculation of how many people an infected person is thought to transmit the virus to on average.
If the R value is one, each carrier passes it on to one other person.
The UK is the second-hardest hit country after the US, with more than 38,000 coronavirus deaths and 270,000 cases.
Since May 13, people in England have been allowed to take unlimited exercise and sunbathe in parks, a relaxation of the original rules enforced in March.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia