The mother of all Mondays

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Boris Johnson is expected to announce later this evening that England is once again heading for another national lockdown.

In a special televised address at 8pm, the Prime Minister is due to unveil a tougher set of restrictions similar to those that were introduced last March. This will include the closure of schools – apart from special classes for the more vulnerable children – until further notice. Some reports suggested that schools will be shut until the February half-term and that the return of students to universities will also be delayed.

The Prime Minister will also make a plea to the public to use ‘discipline’ in all social mixing and interactions in the latest attempt to suppress the spread of the more infectious coronavirus mutation until the vaccine programme is widely rolled out.

On a brighter note, six hospital trusts – in Oxford, London, Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire – began administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab today. Around 500,000 doses are ready for use, while the NHS is planning to have millions of doses ready to roll-out over the next few weeks.

Johnson made the decision to put England into the highest tier level on the advice of the Joint Biosecurity Centre, which includes the UK’s chief medical officers, and because of growing pressure from members of his own government.

In a stark tweet earlier today, Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, called for the immediate closure of all schools and borders and a ban on all household mixing ‘RIGHT AWAY.’

The new lockdown follows the big jump in the number of reported new Covid-19 cases to 58,784, a 42% rise on last Monday, and the continuing high rate of deaths. The UK recorded almost 1,000 deaths a day on two occasions last week, taking numbers back to the peak period last spring.

However, one of the biggest factors influencing Johnson’s about-turn is the number of people working in the essential services such as the police, fire, post and health sectors who are becoming ill with the virus or having to self-isolate because of sickness.

Ministers are concerned that with so many essential workers having to take time off work, the country could grind to a halt unless more stringent attempts are made to suppress the spread of the mutated virus.

The PM’s decision to ramp up restrictions follows on from Nicola Sturgeon’s move to legally force people to stay at home from midnight and for schools to close until February 1.

Tougher restrictions in England are likely to include bans on visiting other households, new rules on wearing masks in other locations such as workplaces and schools, and possibly in crowded open spaces .

It’s not known at this stage whether the government will apply the more stringent measures of the March lockdown, when even outdoor exercise was cut to one hour a day and travelling around the country was banned, other than for essential work.

What is bizarre is why the government, which has made a Horlicks of so many Covid measures, has allowed this latest information to drip-feed into the media. Far better to have kept quiet until Johnson speaks to the nation tonight: leaking is what you do when you can’t get news through official channels. Not to keep your best friends in the press happy.

And as we ask in The Hound, see below, where is Allegra Stratton when you need her most? Her first job as press secretary is to put a muzzle on the leakers so it at least looks as though Johnson is leading from the front rather than being always post-emptive.

It’s going to be a tough few weeks, if not months. Those of you who had planned a dry January are given full permission to change your minds.

Planet Zog 

In a parallel universe, stock markets across Europe had a bumper first day of proper post-holiday trading despite news of tougher curfews and restrictions.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index of larger companies closed up 1.7% at 6,571.88, while the FTSE 250 of domestic companies rose 0.24%. The jollier mood brought about by the vaccine roll-out was infectious across the continent with Germany’s DAX up 0.1% to trade just below all-time highs, while France’s CAC 40 added 0.7%.

Investors are turning more bullish now that the Brexit deal has been signed and the pound gained against the dollar, up to $1.37 for the first time in two years.

Maggie Pagano,
Executive Editor