The government will subsidise two thirds of the wages of workers in pubs, restaurants and other businesses that are forced to close to stop the spread of coronavirus according to reports this morning.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to make the announcement today ahead of next week’s expected three tier scheme which will see bars and restaurants forced to shut across the region.
Northern MP’s were reportedly shown evidence yesterday in a briefing by Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer evidence that hospitality was behind the increase in infections.
However they have been accused of justifying pub closures with “cobbled together” statistics including a three-month-old survey carried out in the US.
Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell tweeted
”There was much consternation about the slide here (as presented to MPs) because (a) it didn’t include the areas where vast majority of transmissions occur (households, uni, health/care), (b) based on US study where there is little else ie rule of 6 etc”
According to the Telegraph It claimed that 29.8 per cent of exposures to coronavirus occurred in pubs and restaurants, with just 2.6 per cent of infections happening in people’s homes.
However, official NHS Test and Trace figures have shown that 75.3 per cent of transmissions happened in the home, with only 5.5 per cent happening in pubs, restaurants and churches.
The Department of Health admitted the figures shown to MPs “do not give us any hard conclusions about where the virus is being transmitted”.
