The Prime Minister is expected to announce new measures designed to curb the number of COVID-19 infections after an emergency COBRA meeting
Boris Johnson will be chairing an emergency COBRA meeting tomorrow ahead of a statement from the Prime Minister on the next steps in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes on a day when the nation’s Prime Minister will also be chairing a cabinet meeting, and it is expected that he will be announcing new measures designed to curb the number of coronavirus infections.
Ahead of this, Boris Johnson will also discuss the COVID-19 response with the first ministers of the devolved nations within the UK: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, later on Monday.
“One thing he will do is reiterate his commitment to working together with the devolved administrations as one United Kingdom in response to the rising infection rates that we’re seeing across the UK,” the PM’s spokesman said.
This comes after the Joint Committee on Human Rights has said that it was “unacceptable” and that “many thousands” were receiving fixed penalty notices (FPNs) despite the evidence that the police did not fully understand the limitations of their powers.
Earlier on Monday, the chief scientific adviser for the government earlier told a Downing Street briefing that the United Kingdom could soon see 49,000 new cases of the coronavirus every day unless further action is taken in order to drive down the current rate of COVID-19 infection.
The Prime Minister has said that he does not want to put the nation into a second nation-wide lockdown, but it is understood that Downing Street is looking at implementing temporary nation-wide precautions to try and “short-circuit” the coronavirus.
Government figures have insisted that the plans being drawn up stopping short of the full nation-wide lockdown that was introduced initially back in March.
Proposals currently being planned out could see the continuing essential travel to schools and workplaces, but restaurants and pubs shut, or perhaps instead operating on restricted hours, with people from different households not being allowed to mix at all.
This second set of restrictions could be put in place for a period of two weeks, but the timing and duration of these measures is yet to have been finalised.
There has been speculation of such a lockdown taking place around the time of school half term in October.
This comes after the Department for Transport (DfT) has said that rail franchising has been “ended” as the department seeks a new model for the nation’s rail network in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Boris Johnson, as well as senior ministers, were briefed by Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, and Clare Lombardelli, the chief economic adviser at the Treasury at the weekend.
“The PM has been engaged with the cabinet throughout this process. The cabinet received a detailed briefing from the government’s chief medical, scientific and economic advisers over the course of the weekend,” his spokesman said.
“The PM will work with his colleagues to ensure that we respond in the most effective way to try to control the spread of the virus and to save lives.”
