Britons must obey social restriction rules in order to “flatten the second hump” of CCP virus infections, save Christmas, and save the country from a “disastrous” second nationwide lockdown, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
Although the number is “far smaller than it was in the spring,” Johnson said the reality is that those infections will proportionally “lead to mortality.”
While talking to The Sun on Wednesday, he described the surge as the “second hump” of a camel.
Only if Britons “can grip it now, stop the surge, arrest the spike, ... flatten the second hump,” they would be “able to enjoy Christmas,” Johnson told the British tabloid.
However, Johnson does not want to impose another nationwide lockdown upon an already battered economy.
When asked about a second nationwide lockdown during the Liaison Committee hearing, Johnson said, “I very much doubt that the financial consequences will be anything but disastrous” and said that his government is going to do everything in its power to prevent it.
“We have to make sure that we defeat the disease by the means that we have set out,” Johnson said. In absence of an effective cure, he’s banking his hopes on social restrictions and ramping up testing capacities.
“So when I see people arguing against the rule of six or saying that the government is coming in too hard on individual liberties and so on—I totally understand that, I sympathize with that, but we must, must defeat this disease,” Johnson said.
He told the Liaison Committee there will be 500,000 tests per day by the end of October.
Johnson’s government has faced criticism in the last few days after demand for tests surged but there was insufficient capacity, with some people having to travel some distance to get a test.
Johnson said that, although it’s reasonable for people to want to get tested so they can be “released to get on with their lives in the normal way,” only people showing symptoms are advised to get a test.
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