Published 13:25 IST, November 2nd 2020
COVID-19 deaths to be 'twice as bad' as spring approaches, warns UK PM Johnson
After UK PM Boris Johnson is expected to warn the lawmakers later that COVID-19 deaths could be twice as high over the winter as they were during first wave.
- World News
- 2 min read
After UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to warn the lawmakers later that COVID-19 deaths could be twice as high over the winter as they were during the first wave of the pandemic. While Johnson has noted that the “virus is spreading much faster” than the considerable worst-case scenario, according to Downing Street he will say in a parliamentary statement that there is “no alternative” to the four-week lockdown across England as he seeks to gain the support of MPs. The British Prime Minister will explain that he was “right to try every possible option” before giving stay-at-home orders to people as criticism mounts for delaying the announcement.
Johnson’s Conservative party’s major opposition, the Labour party has assured that it will back the lockdown but has criticised the delay. In a press conference on October 31, Johnson had announced that strict measures would be imposed across England from November 5 including closures of pubs restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and even places of worship. However, full details of the regulations are expected to be published before the lawmakers vote on November 4.
Johnson accused of ‘giving in to scientists’
Meanwhile, Johnson has been accused of “giving in to scientific advisers” by a former leader of his Conservative Party, Duncan Smith after the British PM announced a lockdown for England in the wake of concerns raised by the experts. From saying that Johnson has been “pressurised” by government experts into announcing lockdown to claiming that the “system has broken down” with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Smith denounced the Conservative government’s approach to COVID-19 pandemic in UK’s Telegraph newspaper.
The former Conservative leader, Duncan Smith wrote, “Normally, advisers advise and ministers decide. Yet that system has broken down with Sage [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] believing its advice to be more like commandments written on stone and its members publicly lecturing the Government over the airways.” However, as per reports, many other experts believe that Johnson announced the lockdown really late.
Updated 13:24 IST, November 2nd 2020
