LONDON’S coronavirus infection rates are doubling every fortnight yet the capital’s testing capacity has been cut by a fifth, the chair of the London councils has warned. Fears over local lockdown restrictions in London have grown as Councillor Peter John revealed one borough has a rate of 40 coronavirus cases per 100,000. Mr John laid […]
LONDON’S coronavirus infection rates are doubling every fortnight yet the capital’s testing capacity has been cut by a fifth, the chair of the London councils has warned.
Fears over local lockdown restrictions in London have grown as Councillor Peter John revealed one borough has a rate of 40 coronavirus cases per 100,000.
Mr John laid bare the full scale of the crisis in London, telling Times Radio today he was “massively worried” about tough rules being brought in.
He said: “We are seeing in London at the moment infection rate doubling every fortnight.
“It is only going in one direction and only going to speed up.”
Half a million students flocking into the capital is also likely to see infection rates soar after young people ignoring social distancing rules have been blamed for new cases.
Boris Johnson yesterday hammered home the message Brits needed to follow the rules or face even tougher restrictions – such as curfews – in order to save Christmas.
The PM warned tough love was the only way to squash the “camel-like” second hump of coronavirus in the UK.
Mr Johnson hinted yesterday afternoon at another national lockdown – but stressed he didn’t want to have to go there.
Mr John revealed that NHS Track & Trace Director Dido Harding had told London councillors that at least 20 per cent of testing capacity had been removed from the city as queues for testing centres swelled.
Hundreds of people were forced to wait at walk-in testing sites to get swabbed for the virus.
It comes as
People living in London have been unable to get a hold of coronavirus swabs for weeks – and Health Secretary Matt Hancock is having to ration tests to try and deal with the crisis.
London MP Munira Wilson said earlier this week her constituents were having to “game the system” and give fake Scottish postcodes to get a hold of tests in Twickenham.
Mr John said he did not know what the trigger for a lockdown for the nine-million Londoner would be – but that the city was quickly losing control of the cases.
“I don’t know what the triggers are, if you had spoken to me two weeks ago I would have said infections rates of 20 per 100,000 would be the trigger or something.
“But that is clearly not the case now. In one London borough we are above 40, in ten London Boroughs we are above 30 per 100,000. I’m not sure what is going to trigger the next steps.”
The shocking infection rates in London have sparked fears of lockdowns being used in the capital.
Local lockdowns in Manchester were brought in when the infection rate jumped from 26 per 100,000 to 41.
Parts of the North East could today be given curfew orders for pubs as new infections have continued to soar.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick confirmed large parts of the region will be hit with tighter coronavirus lockdown restrictions from Friday, but they have yet to be confirmed.
Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said “additional, temporary” measures are being planned to prevent another full lockdown.
He told the BBC this morning: “The evidence we’ve found from local testing is that it’s spreading in three main areas: in pubs, in people’s homes and in grassroots sports,” he said.
“So (council leaders) have put together a series of requests to government for additional restrictions around these areas for a fixed period of time to try to prevent a damaging full lockdown.”
