The Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has raised the prospect of further restrictions,and suggested that Manchester had escaped the most restrictive measures because of pressure from local leaders, saying they had “influenced” the measures.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, he added that talks were ongoing with local leaders saying that “”We probably need to go even further, but we want to design those steps between ourselves and local leaders.
The warning comes as a Sage Scientist told BBC Radio 4’s today programme that the measures needed to go further.
Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London said: “I think it is very disappointing that we had clear advice – we needed to take decisive action several weeks ago.
“And really since that time, all we’ve done is send students back, introduced the rule of six, advised people to work from home if possible but not really promoted that in any real way and closed the pubs an hour early.”So it’s not really surprising that we’re continuing to see large increases in cases and that those increases are being seen around the country.”
He added: “I think it is clear that even at the ‘very high’ levels of restrictions – so-called – that they will not be sufficient to reduce R below one.”
