Early evening summary
Here’s a roundup of the key UK coronavirus developments over the past few hours:
- Hospitals in some parts of England are treating more coronavirus patients than at the peak of the fist wave of the pandemic. On Wednesday, national medical director for NHS England, Prof Stephen Powis, said hospitals in Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham were treating more Covid patients than in April.
- A further 310 Covid deaths have been recorded in the UK. Another 24,701 cases have been confirmed, government data shows.
- Wales has recorded its highest daily death toll since April. The Welsh government’s counsel general, Jeremy Miles, has said 37 deaths from coronavirus have been recorded over the last 24 hours.
- The Department of Health and Social Care has denied it is bringing in a “plus” tiered system after additional measures were added to current tier 1 restrictions in Bristol. Extra measures are also expected on top of tier 3 restrictions in Nottinghamshire, with beauty salons likely to close.
- All of Nottinghamshire is to enter tier 3 coronavirus restrictions on Friday. Previously, it was expected that only the city, as well as the boroughs of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe, would be subject to the strictest measures.
That’s it from me, Amy Walker. Thank you very much for following our coverage today. This live blog is now closing, but our coronavirus coverage continues over on the global live blog.
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Brighton and Hove is “very close” to the threshold where an escalation to tier 2 measures would be considered, the chair of the city’s health & wellbeing board has said.
Sue Shanks added: “It’s sensible for Brighton & Hove to start to plan for a move to tier 2 (high alert level) and think about what that would mean to all aspects of life.
“We do believe that we are very close to the thresholds whereby other regions have started to have those discussions with government which sees them then escalate to tier 2.”
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A convicted murderer who died after contracting Covid in prison had refused to shield despite being offered the chance to isolate, the prisons ombudsman has found.
Angela Burkitt, 55, died in hospital from respiratory failure and Covid-19 pneumonia on 17 April 2020 while a prisoner at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
She was serving a life sentence after being convicted in December 2017 of killing a neighbour.
She also had chronic COPD, hepatitis C and was a former intravenous drug user, all factors which did not cause but contributed to her death.
Sue McAllister CB, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, said in a report that she was satisfied Burkitt “was given the opportunity to shield during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that she refused to do so, despite being advised of the risks to her health.”
The report added: “We are also satisfied that she was sent to hospital promptly when her condition deteriorated.
“However, we consider the prison should have acted sooner to isolate Ms Burkitt when she displayed symptoms of Covid-19, in order to reduce the risk of her infecting other prisoners and staff.”
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An extra £37m will be invested in Scotland’s NHS as part of a winter preparedness plan, which will involve a 50% increase in flu vaccinations and a national framework to mitigate pressure on non-Covid services.
The Scottish government’s health secretary, Jeane Freeman, told the Holyrood parliament this afternoon that the winter efforts would also involve work on a national plan with local delivery for the Covid-19 vaccine, as well as increasing overall Scottish testing capacity from the current position of around 27,000 to at least 65,000 tests per day.
Freeman told MSPs that Scotland’s contact-tracing record remained strong, saying: “Over the four-week period of 21 September to 18 October, weeks when case numbers were rising - 91% of positive cases successfully completed within 48 hours – 75% of that number within 24 hours.”
She also revealed that more than 4,000 outpatients had been seen in NHS Louisa Jordan since July, with the facility offering crucial additional capacity in orthopaedics, dermatology, oral medicine and imaging as well as remaining ready to care for Covid patients if necessary.
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Newark and Sherwood district council has confirmed that it, alongside Nottingham city and other boroughs in Nottinghamshire, is expected to go into tier 3 restrictions on Friday at 12.01am.
⚠️Latest Covid-19 Update⚠️
— Newark and Sherwood District Council (@NSDCouncil) October 28, 2020
In response to the increase in infection rates across Nottinghamshire and following a meeting with government this morning, Newark and Sherwood, along with the other Nottinghamshire Districts and Boroughs and Nottingham City, will move into Tier 3.
In a tweet, the council said: “In response to the increase in infection rates across Nottinghamshire and following a meeting with government this morning, Newark and Sherwood, along with the other Nottinghamshire districts and boroughs and Nottingham City, will move into tier 3.
“This is expected to come into force in the early hours of Friday morning (00:01 Friday 30 October).
“Further details are expected to follow today including the financial support and what the new measures will mean for people who live and work in Newark and Sherwood.”
Updated
More than 1,000 people who should have been self-isolating after entering the UK from abroad could not be traced by the police, new figures show.
Data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on Wednesday revealed that up to 19 October, in 380 cases investigated by the police, people had given the wrong address so they could not be found and no police action could be taken, while another 629 were out when officers attended and so also faced no further police action.
The NPCC said these cases are referred back to UK Border Force.
The NPCC chairman, Martin Hewitt, said:
It is not the police role to go searching for those people.
As things stand, policing is now back to demand levels, in terms of demand for service and crime, as we were this time last year, give or take a few percentages.
So we have to be very clear that we deal with those issues, and then we are very clear that we are supporting Covid regulations and the work against the virus, but we need to do that in a proportionate way.
The latest figures from the NPCC show that crime levels have returned near to those pre-pandemic – they were 6% lower in the four weeks to 27 September than in the same period last year – while forces are also dealing with enforcing coronavirus restrictions.
Updated
UK Covid cases jump by nearly 25,000 as deaths up by 310
The UK has recorded a further 310 coronavirus-related deaths and another 24,701 people have tested positive for the virus, latest government data shows.
On Tuesday, 367 new deaths were recorded across the country – the highest daily number since May.
Some hospitals treating more Covid patients than in April
Hospitals in parts of England, including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham, are now treating more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave, NHS England has said.
Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said:
Coronavirus cases and hospitalised patients are rising sharply and in some parts of the country including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham hospitals are now treating more Covid patients than at the peak of the pandemic in April.
At University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, the number of patients with Covid has jumped 27% in five days.
Analysis of data from the trust, which runs three hospitals across the West Midlands, showed 294 patients who had tested positive for the disease were being treated on Wednesday. That compares with 231 patients on October 23.
Over the same period, the number of Covid-positive patients in ITU increased to 34, from 30.
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DHSC says it is not bringing in 'plus' tiered system
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was not introducing a plus system after Bristol city council described its latest measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus as “tier 1 plus”.
“There are three local Covid alert levels which are enshrined in law and we are not considering the introduction of a ‘plus’ system,” she said.
“Bristol is currently at medium and local leaders have the authority to bring in some additional measures for their area, and we welcome local efforts to break chains of transmission.”
Extra measures than those currently in place in other tier 3 areas are also expected to come into force in Nottinghamshire, with tattoo parlours, beauty salons and sunbed shops likely to close.
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The leader of Bradford council has said discussions about coronavirus restrictions in West Yorkshire are ongoing but the government appeared to be “unflinching in their resolve” to place the region into tier 3.
Susan Hinchcliffe said it was unclear what support would be offered to businesses in the event of a move to the higher tier but the government had told council leaders it would be a “template package” with no room for negotiation – although ministers had promised to clarify the support package in a further meeting.
The councillor said she was concerned about rising infection rates, hospitals reaching capacity, vulnerable people contracting the virus, rising mental health issues and people’s jobs.
Hinchcliffe added:
It is clear from our conversations so far that government are unflinching in their resolve to put Bradford and West Yorkshire into tier 3.
Our local residents and our local businesses need certainty about whether we are going into tier 3 or not.
Whilst government only called us in for a meeting about tier 3 at the beginning of this week, I know that continued national media stories have led residents and businesses to speculate for some time about whether West Yorkshire would be next after seeing neighbouring regions go into tier 3.
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University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust has said “some procedures and non in-patient activity will have to be postponed” to manage “large numbers of very sick patients” across its three main sites.
The trust said cancelling any procedure was regrettable but necessary in response to “the sustained and growing pressures on our hospitals”.
It added patients with “urgent clinical needs and cancer” were being prioritised.
There are currently 294 patients with Covid-19, including 34 in ITUs, across its three main hospitals: Queen Elizabeth hospital Birmingham, Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham Heartlands hospital.
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Nicola Sturgeon moved to reassure residents of Lanarkshire that they would not be put into tier 4 – the harshest level of the new Scottish five-level system – as local council, NHS and police chiefs wrote to the Scottish government warning of “significant additional harms and consequences” of a move to the near-lockdown conditions required by the top tier.
Schools would stay open but other restrictions would resemble March’s lockdown, including non-essential shop and hospitality closures.
The leaked letter argues that the situation in the health board area of nearly 700,000 residents was improving. The eight-page plea from the two local authorities is also signed by the chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire and Police Scotland’s divisional commander for Lanarkshire.
It states that in recent days the health board has seen the first fall in the percentage of positive tests since mid-April, and points out that a surge in infections related to half-term trips to Blackpool has now slowed significantly.
At her daily briefing, Sturgeon said that she “very much hoped” the Lanarkshire would not be placed in the top tier, and that she would only use that level of restrictions “if it was really necessary to get dangerously high levels of transmission down.”
Elsewhere, community leaders across the Highlands and islands of Scotland have called for local people to be allowed to meet indoors, highlighting the dangers of rural isolation and the fact that worsening weather conditions make outdoor mixing increasingly difficult.
Shetland’s Lib Dem MSP Beatrice Wishart said: “Shetland has a harsh winter, and stopping people from meeting inside at all will add further to feelings of anxiety, loneliness and isolation.”
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About two-thirds of coronavirus fines have been handed to those under the age of 35, police figures show.
Data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on Wednesday shows 20,223 fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions were issued by police in England and Wales between 27 March and 19 October – 17,451 in England and 2,772 in Wales.
These include 980 for breaches of local lockdown laws – with the majority issued by the Greater Manchester (374) and Northumbria (366) forces.
Overall, the weekly number of fines rose between mid-September and early October.
Around eight in 10 of the enforcement notices were issued to men, 78%, while 35% went to 18 to 24-year-olds, 18% to those aged 25-29 and 14% to people aged 30-34.
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Nottinghamshire facing 'tier 3 plus' restrictions
Beauty salons in Nottinghamshire will have to close when the region is placed under England’s strictest lockdown restrictions from Friday.
Jason Zadrozny, the leader of Ashfield district council, said the county had been placed in “tier 3 plus” as nail parlours, tanning salons and tattoo parlours would have to close as well as many pubs and bars.
He told the Guardian: “We’re effectively in tier 3 plus. The additions for us in Nottinghamshire on top of tier 3 are personal care things – sunbeds, nail parlours, beauty salons, tattoo parlours – on the recommendation of Public Health England because they think tier 3 wasn’t enough to dampen the curve across Nottinghamshire.”
Pubs and bars that cannot serve substantial meals will also have to close under the measures, it is understood, but hairdressers and barber shops will be allowed to remain open.
It had been thought that only the city of Nottingham and three other council areas would enter tier 3 this week, but rising infection rates mean this has been expanded to the whole of Nottinghamshire, a region of nearly 1.2 million people.
You can read the full report from my colleague Josh Halliday here:
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Bristol is introducing Covid marshals, conducting deeper analytic work and taking on further powers of its local test-and-trace service as part of what it describes as “tier 1 plus”.
Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, said the city had been in discussion with the Department for Health and Social Care and local partners in the NHS and across the city over the past few weeks.
“Our rates in Bristol are rising and we are currently in Tier 1, which is the ‘medium’ local Covid alert level,” Rees said.
“Within this tier, we are taking targeted actions including the introduction of eight Covid marshals, deeper analytic work to identify rising tides of cases and taking on further powers of our local test-and-trace service to prevent further spread of the virus and protect our communities.
“These actions are being called tier 1 plus. Any further actions will be based on what we’re seeing locally and through discussion with our local partners across the city and central government.”
Rees called for people to abide by the rule of six, maintain social distancing and wear a face covering when indoors in mandatory settings.
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Hi, I’m briefly taking over the blog whilst Amy has a well deserved break. Please do send any tips and stories to nazia.parveen@theguardian.com
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If, as expected, tier 3 is extended to cover all of Nottinghamshire it will bring to 8.7 million people under the highest government lockdown level.
This is equivalent to 15.5% of the population of England while a further 20.4 million people – 36.2% of the overall population – would then be under tier 2 restrictions.
The move would bring almost 1.2 million people (1,161,124) living in Nottingham, Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, and Rushcliffe under “very high” restrictions.
Case rates across the local authorities in the seven days to 26 October ranged from 159.3 cases per 100,000 in Newark and Sherwood to 347.3 in Nottingham.
The Nightingale hospital in Manchester will start receiving patients who do not have Covid-19 from today, the NHS has confirmed.
Nightingale hospitals in northern England were put on standby earlier this month as a result of a surge in coronavirus cases.
A spokesperson for the NHS in the north-west said: “The NHS Nightingale hospital north-west will accept patients from today to provide care for those who do not have Covid-19, but do need further support before they are able to go home, such as therapy and social care assessments.”
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Bristol moving to tier 1 'plus', according to reports
Bristol is to be the first place in the UK to move into “tier 1 plus” coronavirus measures, ITV has reported.
The new restrictions, which will reportedly be imposed within a matter of days, mean tighter enforcement, more local control over test and trace, and a targeted focus on working adults aged 30 to 60.
Covid marshals will also be introduced int the city to ensure restrictions are followed.
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, told the broadcaster that the city would move into tier 2 or 3 measures if tier 1 plus did not bring the infection rate down.
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Police are investigating reports that a “red wall” Tory MP has been threatened with violence after he voted against free school meals for deprived children during the half-term holidays.
Ian Levy, who represents Blyth Valley in Northumberland, said the threats were distressing to him, his family and staff.
He said the comments were “politically motivated” and were “orchestrated” by people outside his constituency.
In a statement, he said:
“The issue of free school meal provision in holidays clearly does need further debate and there is plenty of time ahead of Christmas to do that.
“What needs to be properly understood is how people are best supported and I am fully behind looking at different options.
“Debate does though have to take place in a reasonable manner whether it is in the House of Commons or on social media.
“In recent days, I have had threats of violence which have been distressing to myself, my family and to my staff. These have been reported to the police.
“What is particularly sad is this had undoubtedly been politically motivated and orchestrated with the majority of offensive comments and threats from people living outside of Blyth Valley.”
Northumbria police confirmed they were investigating “a number of reports of malicious communication”.
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Nottinghamshire expected to enter tier 3 restrictions on Friday
The whole of Nottinghamshire is expected to enter England’s strictest coronavirus restrictions by the end of the week.
It is understood that pubs, bars and other venues will be forced to close across the east Midlands county from Friday.
It had been expected that only the city of Nottingham and three other council areas would enter tier 3 this week but rising infection rates mean this has been expanded to the whole of Nottinghamshire, a region of more than 828,000 people.
It means that more than 8.2 million people in England – or one in seven people – will be living under the country’s tightest restrictions by the end of the week.
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Wales records highest daily death toll since April
The Welsh government’s counsel general, Jeremy Miles, has said 37 deaths from coronavirus have been recorded in Wales over the last 24 hours.
The figure, which is reported by Public Health Wales, is the highest amount of deaths in a single day since April.
Miles told a press conference in Cardiff:
Yesterday, Public Health Wales recorded seven more deaths. Today, I’m sorry to say that it will confirm a further 37 deaths. My thoughts are with the families and friends who are mourning the loss of a loved one at this time.
Updated
Keeping gyms and leisure centres open during the pandemic is critical to ensuring the health and wellbeing of communities, according to academics who found they pose an extremely low Covid-19 risk.
Analysis of more than 62 million fitness facility visits across Europe since September has found the average infection rate in gyms, leisure centres and fitness clubs is 0.78 per 100,000 visits.
The SafeACTiVE study found only 487 positive cases reported from operators based in Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK.
The preliminary findings of the study, conducted by Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) and King Juan Carlos University in Spain, will bolster calls from the fitness sector for facilities to remain open as coronavirus restrictions tighten in some regions.
The director of the AWRC, Prof Rob Copeland, said: “We know that being physically fit can help reduce the severity of Covid-19 infection and, moreover, being active can help us cope psychologically when faced with the challenges of a second wave of the pandemic across Europe.
“Keeping leisure centres and fitness clubs open and fully operational is critical to ensuring the health and wellbeing of our communities.”
The research has been commissioned by EuropeActive - a non-profit association for the European fitness and physical activity sector.
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Some university students are struggling with weeks or potentially months of rolling self-isolation, because of the make-up of households in residential halls, NUS Scotland has warned.
The head of the students’ union, Matt Crilly, has written to the Scottish government’s education secretary John Swinney, urging him to consider alternative, or additional, measures to self-isolation – including asymptomatic testing – to avoid long-term self-isolation among the student population.
Large numbers of students are currently living in halls, in “households” defined as sharing a bathroom or kitchen. When one student tests positive, all their household contacts must self-isolate for 14 days, but for asymptomatic students the clock resets every time a new member of the household develops symptoms.
Crilly also called for Swinney to consider the role that asymptomatic testing could play in ensuring the safe return of students to their family homes over the winter break, as well as support for students who have to stay in halls over Christmas.
The NHS Covid-19 app has been updated after an issue around unsupported languages left some in England and Wales unable to access it.
Earlier, our UK technology editor, Alex Hern, reported that the app did not work for hundreds of thousands of people whose phones were set to unsupported languages, including French, Spanish and Portuguese.
After concerns were raised about accessibility for non-English speakers and foreign visitors to England and Wales who wanted to use the app for contact tracing, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said an update would be rolled out to show the text of the app in English if their device was not set to one of the supported languages.
This update now appears to have already gone live for some users, with both iPhone and Android handsets set to unsupported languages correctly opening and displaying app text in English when tested.
A date has been set for the chancellor’s spending review, in which Downing Street has suggested he could announce extra support to feed families through the school holidays.
Rishi Sunak has announced he will unveil his spending plans for next year on Wednesday 25 November.
The government had already confirmed it was scrapping a planned multi-year spending review and instead will hold only a one-year review due to the focus on dealing with the current pandemic.
On 25 November I will deliver the 2020 Spending Review alongside the OBR forecast, setting out spending plans for the next year so we can continue to prioritise our response to Covid-19 and protect jobs. #PlanForJobshttps://t.co/Qcy1enScmj
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) October 28, 2020
Following pressure for the government to extend free school meal provisions during the holidays, Number 10 hinted this week that Sunak could announce extra support as part of the fiscal package.
The prime minister’s official spokesman pointed reporters to comments from the health secretary, Matt Hancock, that “the spending review sets out any future funding on behalf of the government”.
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Cases unlikely to fall rapidly under tier 2 and 3, says Prof Neil Ferguson
Prof Neil Ferguson, the scientist whose modelling prompted the UK-wide lockdown in March, has said measures in tier 2 and tier 3 areas are “unlikely to cause daily cases and deaths to fall rapidly”.
He told the PA Media news agency that modelling suggested this could leave the country with “high levels” of Covid cases, demand on healthcare and deaths “until spring 2021”.
Prof Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said:
The concern at the moment is that even if the measures adopted in tier 2 and tier 3 areas slow spread in the next few weeks, they are unlikely to cause daily cases and deaths to fall rapidly.
Modelling from all the academic groups informing Sage suggests that this could leave the country with high levels of Covid circulation, healthcare demand and mortality for several months, at least until spring 2021.
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Alex Salmond has called for an independent inquiry to investigate whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by misleading Holyrood on what she knew about a government inquiry into his conduct.
Salmond has written to James Hamilton QC, a former director of public prosecutions in Ireland, asking him to broaden his investigation by probing Sturgeon’s claims in parliament she did not know about an internal inquiry into alleged harassment claims against Salmond until Salmond told her in April 2018.
In January 2018 two civil servants made formal complaints that Salmond had sexually harassed them when first minister. Their complaints were upheld in August 2018, but the internal government investigation was declared unlawful in January 2019 after Salmond challenged the fairness of the process in court.
It has since emerged Sturgeon met Salmond’s former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, in Holyrood on 29 March 2018, where Aberdein raised the allegations about Salmond. That meeting was brokered by a senior member of Sturgeon’s staff. It also emerged on Tuesday that Sturgeon’s principal private secretary, John Somers, twice met one of the complainers before she made her complaint official.
Hamilton was asked by John Swinney, Sturgeon’s deputy, to investigate whether Sturgeon interfered with the government inquiry. A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are aware of [Salmond’s] letter. The remit of Mr Hamilton’s work is well established, and was set out to the parliament by the deputy first minister.”
Nottingham hospital bosses have cancelled some cancer operations due to “pressure on intensive care units”.
The city and neighbouring boroughs had been preparing for tier 3 restrictions to come into force on Thursday, but a surge in cases means they are likely to be imposed on all of Nottinghamshire.
Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust’s medical director, Keith Girling, said the trust had taken the “extremely difficult decision” to postpone four cancer operations this week.
The head of the NHS trust, which runs Nottingham’s two main hospitals, previously said some non-urgent surgery and appointments would have to be cancelled because of a rise in Covid-19 admissions.
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Number of Covid patients in hospitals could reach 25,000 within weeks
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 could more than double within weeks, the former chief scientific adviser to the government has said.
Prof Sir Mark Walport said it was “not unrealistic” to think that there could be 25,000 people in hospitals by the end of November. It comes as pressure mounts on medical staff, with more than 9,000 patients in hospitals with Covid-19.
Asked if it is not unrealistic to think of 25,000 people being in hospital by the end of November, Walport, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said: “It’s certainly not unrealistic to think about that.”
On hospital admissions, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “France, which has a very similar population to us, currently has about 16,000 people in hospital. It’s got 2,500 in intensive care beds compared with 852 here and roughly half the ICU beds in France are occupied. We’re seeing similar things in Spain.
“And these are in spite of these countries taking strong measures as well. So, the answer is that with our current measures - which are similar but with variations in different parts of Europe - there’s still evidence that there isn’t as much social distancing as there was when we clamped down on the first wave. And so we know that the risk is significant [and] that cases will continue to grow.”
He said that we are “still relatively early in the second wave” but added: “The number of cases is rising very significantly - it was 22,800 on 27 October and the seven-day average was just over 22,000. So there are an awful lot of cases.”
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National lockdown 'not appropriate', says environment secretary
The environment secretary, George Eustice, who is doing the interview rounds on behalf of the government this morning, has said tiered restrictions for local areas have been introduced in a “timely way” and a national lockdown is “not appropriate”.
Speaking on Times Radio on Wednesday morning, he said: “In some ways we’ve always anticipated that there would be a second spike.
“That’s why we have been monitoring the situation closely since September, introducing, in a timely way, restrictions that are appropriate to the level of prevalence in particular parts of the country with these three different levels of intervention.
“We’re trying to intervene in things in a proportionate way across the country, but we don’t think it’s appropriate to have a national lockdown, because there’s parts of the country, like Cornwall, where the incidence of the disease is actually very low.”
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Airedale hospital in West Yorkshire has become the latest hospital to say it is suspending non-urgent surgery for two weeks.
It said in a statement: “We are seeing increasing demand on the hospital which is in turn meaning that our inpatient beds are at capacity.
“As a result, and as per our escalation plans, we have taken the decision to postpone any elective surgery that needs an overnight stay. This comes into effect immediately, for the next two weeks.
We are seeing a high demand for our hospital services & our inpatient beds are at capacity. We are therefore postponing any operations that need an overnight stay apart from urgent and cancer surgery. We do apologise to everyone affected by this https://t.co/09jb3SxTIb
— Airedale Hospital (@AiredaleNHSFT) October 28, 2020
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The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said the government’s failure to use the school half-term for a circuit-breaker lockdown means they now need to “do something quickly to save Christmas”.
Ashworth said ministers had “lost a window of opportunity” for a national lockdown over the holidays, which its scientific advisers and Labour had been requesting for “two weeks or so”.
Speaking on Times Radio on Wednesday morning, he said government sources are planning for a tier 3 lockdown in most areas of the country “at some point in November”.
When asked if he thought families would be able to meet in groups of more than six on Christmas Day, he said:
That’s in the hands of all of us, and in the hands of the decisions it (the government) makes in the next week or so about what they’re going to do to get on top of this virus.
I think because they’ve missed this window of opportunity over the half term, I’m worried now that what we’ll see is deeper, more drastic lockdown action over November and December, which sadly probably does put Christmas at risk.
The government have got to do something quickly to save Christmas for everybody, because we want people to have a family Christmas, and I think it would be awful if people didn’t have that.
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Calls grow for national lockdown
Good morning. Calls for national lockdown are growing as the UK’s coronavirus death toll passed 60,000 on Tuesday.
A further 367 Covid-19 deaths were confirmed yesterday – the largest number since May, and 265 higher than the previous day.
This brings the rolling weekly death toll to 200 a day, with 61,469 deaths now reported across the country, according to analysis of official data.
More than 9,000 people were in hospital with the virus on Tuesday, with Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust the latest to cancel some non-urgent operations.
You can read the full report from Aamna Mohdin and Pamela Duncan here:
Please feel free to get in touch your tips or stories throughout the day on Twitter @amyrwalker.
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The government’s delay in announcing full details of tier 3 restrictions in Nottingham has been described as “unacceptable” by the city’s council leader.
The city, alongside areas of Nottinghamshire including Broxtowe, Rushcliffe and Gedling, were expected to have been placed under the strictest lockdown measures from midnight tomorrow.
But the government has reportedly withdrawn its agreement for a “rethink” of the areas that will be affected amid rising infection rates in other parts of the county.
Nottingham city council’s Labour leader, David Mellen, said on Twitter:
“Nottingham people and businesses deserve clarity in difficult times. This is not good enough for our city.”
Unacceptable delay in Government confirmation of Nottingham’s Tier 3 details. Nottingham people and businesses deserve clarity in difficult times. This is not good enough for our city
— David Mellen (@CllrDavidMellen) October 28, 2020
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