Tougher restrictions for areas of England classified as being at “very high” risk from COVID-19 will not be enough to control the outbreak there, the government’s top medic said.
Under the new three-tiered system, “very high” risk areas face pub closures and other restrictions on socialising.
Speaking at a televised news conference alongside Johnson, Chief Medical Adviser Chris Whitty urged local authorities in these so-called “tier-3 areas”, the worst-hit, to use their powers to introduce additional restrictions.
“I am not confident, and nor is anyone confident, that the tier 3 proposals … if we did the absolute base case and nothing more, would be enough to get on top of it,” Whitty said.
“And that is why there’s a lot of flexibility in the tier 3 level for local authorities, guided by their directors of public health, to go up that range so they can do significantly more than the absolute base,” he said.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson overruled Government scientists who pressed for national lockdown measures such as stopping all household mixing and closing all pubs, it has emerged.
Papers from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show that the body called for an immediate introduction of national interventions, saying failure to take such measures could result in “a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences”.
