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Dominic Raab urges ‘full compliance’ with coronavirus rules to avoid second national lockdown

Domini Raab speaking on BBC Breakfast (BBC)
Domini Raab speaking on BBC Breakfast (BBC)

A cabinet minister appealed today for “full compliance” with social distancing rules to avoid a “blanket” national lockdown.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended the three-tier system but made clear that the Government was prepared to tighten Covid-19 restrictions if current measures fail to get the epidemic under control.

As more areas are moved into Tier 3, he insisted on BBC Breakfast: “The targeted measures are targeted in the right place. We never said this would be easy.

“Even at Level Three, at the very high level, schools are being kept open, businesses are being kept open.

“We leave in reserve the option of taking further measures.

“But actually what we really need now..is full compliance, full-co-operation, and we really need to lean into this and that’s the way we avoid the more drastic measures which we don’t want to take because of the impact that they would have on the economy.

“It must be right to take a focused, localised approach where the virus is the strongest, than to have the rather blunt tool of a nationwide blanket lockdown.”

France and Germany are among other European countries introducing national lockdowns, with varying degree of severity.

However, Mr Raab stressed that the Government was still hoping that the tier system would work, saying it had seen the rate of growth in the disease ease.

He added:  “It’s really important that as we take those measures, localised, as robust as we can with the support that we are providing, that we also get people following them, that’s the way we break the cycle...we avoid the blanket national lockdown which would be very damaging for the economy.”

Nearly a fifth of England will soon be under the toughest coronavirus restrictions as the number of patients in hospital continues to rise.

Nottinghamshire entered Tier 3 this morning, while West Yorkshire will move up to the highest alert level from Monday.

It will take the total number of people in the highest level of restrictions to just over 11 million - 19.6 per cent of the population.

And with the Tees Valley and the West Midlands expecting to be moved up to Tier 3, millions more people could soon be under the strictest level of Covid-19 restrictions.

Local authority sources in the West Midlands said the “very high” alert level could be imposed “by the end of next week or the start of the following week”, while leaders in the Tees Valley said the Government had told them it intended to raise their area into Tier 3 - although no agreement had yet been reached.

There are signs that the rise in cases in London may be slowing but if cases escalate the capital could go into Tier 3, with Mayor Sadiq Khan believing this is “highly likely” within weeks if there is no national circuit breaker.

New data from NHS England showed the number of hospital beds in England occupied by confirmed coronavirus patients had more than doubled in two weeks from 4,105 on October 13 to 8,595 on Tuesday.

There were 743 Covid-19 patients in mechanical ventilation beds in England on Tuesday, up from 560 on the same day the previous week.

There are more than 30,000 mechanical ventilators available to the NHS following a rapid expansion over the summer, although the majority are being held in reserve for use if and when needed.

The NHS Test and Trace system recorded its highest-ever weekly number of positive cases, while a study by Imperial College London found almost 100,000 people are catching Covid-19 every day.

However, other scientists have suggested the figure could be half this level.

Health sources have also said that a suggestion in the Imperial report that the R rate of transmission in London is nearly three is a huge over-estimate.

The latest data from the test and trace system shows that a total of 126,065 people tested positive for Covid-19 at least once in the week to October 21 – a 23 per cent increase on the previous week and the highest weekly number since the programme began at the end of May.

Official figures yesterday showed that a further 280 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 and there had been 23,065 more lab-confirmed cases in the UK.

The Department of Health and Social Care said leisure and sports facilities, such as gyms, will be allowed to stay open in West Yorkshire when it moves to Tier 3.

It added more than a dozen regions will move from the lowest to the middle tier of restrictions on Saturday.

These include East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston-Upon-Hull, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Dudley, Staffordshire, Telford, the Wrekin, Amber Valley, Bolsover, Derbyshire Dales, Derby City, South Derbyshire, the whole of High Peak, Charnwood, Luton and Oxford.

The latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England showed that Covid-19 case rates in England were rising for all age groups except 10 to 19 year-olds.

The highest rates are currently among 20 to 29-year-olds at 333.2 cases per 100,000 people in the week to October 25, up from 306.6 in the previous seven days.

For people aged 70-79 the rate was 110.0, up from 88.0, while for people aged 80 and over it rose from 125.6 to 156.7.

Meanwhile in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a new tiered system of restrictions will come into force at 6am on Monday.

The central belt, Dundee, Inverclyde and Ayrshire will be placed into Level 3; Aberdeenshire, Fife, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway will be in Level 2; and the Highlands and much of the Islands will be in Level 1.

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