Covid-19: Government considering banning gatherings of more than six people over surge in cases

Gatherings of more than six people may be prohibited as early as this week by the government, as Number 10 decides how to crack down on the rise in Covid-19 cases.

Ministers and officials are meeting today to examine the data that shows a worrying trend. The government figures released yesterday suggested that 2,948 new UK cases were recorded on Monday.

The “early warning system” is going off in the Joint Biosecurity Centre – where the information on cases is collected and analysed. There is grave concern among ministers that “the infection rate is rocketing” and hospitalisations are about to start increasing.

If a draconian ban on gatherings of more than six – down from 30 – is given the go ahead, the police will be empowered to enforce it, I’m told.

What any of this would mean for offices, schools, universities, restaurants and family gatherings is unclear. But it doesn’t sound great.

The government’s hope, I’m told by a Whitehall source, is that robust warnings from the scientists and medical officers in recent days and in the next 48 hours will cause Britons to moderate their behaviour and observe the existing restrictions. If not, tougher measures will follow rapidly.

Number 10 hopes the media will transmit this message – behave, or else – relentlessly over the next few days. A statement is expected later today.

As of now, no final decision has been taken, but for those hoping that life and the economy might be returning to something closer to normal this month the news that the government is considering imposing much harsher restrictions will be deeply disappointing. There is also the question of how much more of this – the law by diktat – people are prepared to take. Isn’t increased testing the reason there are more cases? Are the tests reliable or misleading? Might the disease have changed or weakened? Shouldn’t we all calm down because while this is a serious disease it is clearly not the plague?

Opponents of the government will say the Prime Minister is panicking and that he risks sinking the economic recovery. There is growing fury from critics of lockdown over the stringent approach taken by the UK and devolved administrations since March

I repeat, no final decision has been taken yet. But to anyone familiar with the trajectory of this story from the start – rumours, followed by blithe assurances, followed by sudden warnings, followed by crackdown – it all feels very familiar.