UK Coronavirus Alert Level Moving to 4

The level of coronavirus warning in the UK is being upgraded from 3 to 4, meaning that transmission is “high or exponentially growing,” its chief medical officers have said.

It comes after the government’s scientific advisory warned that without further intervention, there could be 50,000 new cases of coronavirus a day by mid-October.

A further 4,368 day-to-day cases were registered in the UK on Monday, up from 3,899.

On Tuesday, the prime minister will make a speech in the Commons.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said it seemed “extremely likely” that, along with other initiatives, pubs and other venues in England would be required to have closing hours of 22:00.

The Chief Medical Officers for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in a statement announcing their decision to switch to level 4, said cases were now “increasing increasingly and potentially steadily in large sections of all four nations.”

They encouraged people to follow government recommendations over the autumn and winter “to prevent massive excess deaths and extraordinary strain in the NHS”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the move represented “the major shift caused by coronavirus in the current threat.”

In its reaction, this nation is now facing a turning point and it is crucial that everybody plays their part now to stop the spread of the virus and protect lives, “he said.”

The warning level recommended by the Joint Biosecurity Centre was decreased on 19 June from level 4 to 3, suggesting that the virus was “in general circulation” but that there may be a “gradual relaxation of restrictions.”

The planned change arrives as the PM prepares on Tuesday morning to chair a Cobra emergency conference to be attended by the representatives of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Amid data showing London was “keeping up” with Covid-19 hotspots in northern England, Mayor Sadiq Khan of the capital said he concluded that moving early was the correct thing to do both for public health and the economy, “rather than trying to implement more restrictive steps later.”

“Sir Patrick Vallance said earlier at Downing Street, alongside chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty,” We personally agree that the outbreak doubles approximately every seven days.

If, because that’s pretty huge if, because if it goes on unabated, and it goes on rising, doubling every seven days … if that went on, you’d end up with something like 50,000 cases a day in mid-October.

Fifty-thousand cases a day will be projected to lead to 200-plus deaths a month later, so in mid-November, say.

Therefore, the challenge is to ensure that the double-time does not linger for seven days.

“That needs pace, it needs movement and it needs enough to be able to get that down.”

Given the warning this morning from the UK ‘s two most senior pandemic advisors, the switch to level 4 does not come as a surprise.

Infections are rising, while some experts doubt whether the crisis is as dire as Professor Chris Witty and Sir Patrick Vallance reported when, by mid-October, they lifted the possibility of 50,000 cases a day.

Cases have historically been predicted to escalate during this time of year as respiratory viruses appear to circulate more tightly with society’s continuing re-opening.

The history of countries such as France and Spain is definitely not as sharp as the worst-case scenario proposed.

But it is clear that the administration needs to move early this time — one of the major complaints is that in March they were reluctant to enforce lockdowns, resulting in more casualties.

With an announcement planned on Tuesday, Level 4 paves the way for extra constraints to be added.

Officials are quite mindful that a fine line has to be handled, which is why the cards do not have a full lockdown.

Schools are surely going to be protected.

But all limits have a price for society. Go so much and the danger is that the treatment is worse than the sickness.