With more than 4,400 new cases registered today, the UK now counts 390,358 infections with the new coronavirus and rises to 41,759 deaths, on a day when 27 people died within 28 days of having tested positive for covid-19.
According to data released on Friday, the General Directorate of Health for England estimates that the effective transmissibility index (Rt) is between 1.1 and 1.4, above the maximum level of 1 considered safe.
This led to the announcement of tighter restrictions for the Lancashire, Merseyside and West Yorkshire regions in northern England, and parts of the center of the country due to the significant increase in cases.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock admitted on Friday that the conservative government has not ruled out decreeing a second national confinement to contain the covid-19 pandemic, although he considers this option a “last resort”.
“I don’t want that to happen,” and to avoid it it is important that “people come together and recognize that we are facing a serious challenge,” he told the BBC.
The public station reported on Friday that the British Executive is considering imposing new restrictions across England next week, which would include the closure of bars and restaurants, but keeping schools and workplaces open due to exponential increase in infections in the past few days.
According to the BBC, the director general of health and the main scientific adviser to the government warned, in a meeting on Wednesday, of the risk of a worsening of the epidemic situation and a significant number of deaths by the end of October if no more are done. interventions.
The Financial Times newspaper said that a hypothesis suggested by scientists advising the government is to enact a shorter confinement to coincide with the interim school holidays of the last week of October, thus limiting the impact on education.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 953,025 deaths and more than 30.5 million cases of infection in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February, the American continent is now the one with the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.
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