LONDON and other major cities could be locked down with travel in and out banned if coronavirus cases worsen, No10 confirmed today.
As part of the Government’s recently released ‘contain strategy’, it won’t rule out the power to stop people from going into certain areas to stop the spread of the virus.
Today the PM’s spokesman confirmed London and other cities could be locked down if coronavirus cases spike.
They told reporters this lunchtime: “If you look at the contain strategy… it sets out within there the possibility of putting in place restrictions on travel if there is an area particularly badly affected. One of the steps within that is closing down local transport networks. We have informed the public and politicians of that being a potential action we could take. But it’s not something specific to London. It would be because there has been a specific outbreak in a town, city or more localised areas.”
It’s not clear how the Government would enforce these rules if they were to come in place – but the army have been on stand by to help with the virus crisis.
If that were applied to London, it might mean banning people living in the capital from going outside of the M25.
“That would be the border point,” an insider told the Sunday Times.
Road blocks could also be used to stop people moving, but this would be tricky as many would work outside of the affected areas or would need to travel to get food and essentials.
It’s also unclear whether key workers like those in the NHS would be allowed to cross the boundary to work. During stay at home order back in March, people were allowed to go to work if they were a key worker.
It comes as:
- A leading expert claimed Britain is not seeing a second spike of the coronavirus and the new local outbreaks can be dealt with
- Cases have doubled in Manchester in just a week with infection rates now as high as May
- New on-the-spot tests that take just an hour to confirm Covid-19 will help the return to school and air travel
Buried in the documents it says: “Existing powers under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 allow ministers to implement more substantial restrictions, such as restricting local or national transport systems – closing them entirely, or introducing capacity limits or geographical restrictions.
“Regulations would be produced – and approved by Parliament – on a case-by-case basis.”
It comes after some metropolitan areas in the North of England saw measures tightened last week in order to contain further spread of the virus.
Earlier minister Nadhim Zahawi today refused to rule out putting the capital into lockdown if there was a spike in cases.
Appearing on LBC, this morning Business minister Mr Zahawi refused to rule it out.
He said: “We constantly look at how the virus is behaving. If we see the virus spreading in a particular way in London, as we‘ve seen in Manchester and West Yorkshire, where it’s spreading through people coming into another person’s home and that’s the way it’s spread, then we will discuss that with the police and we will not hesitate to act.”
The minister was challenged on if this meant nobody going in or out and airports being frozen, and again failed to rule it out.
He said: “Look, I don’t want to speculate and set hares running in any way on your programme. What I would say is look at the way we’re dealing with it, whether in Leicester or Manchester and West Yorkshire and East Lancashire or elsewhere. We will actually follow how the virus is behaving and how it is being transmitted between people and then act accordingly.”
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has reacted with fury and claimed he was excluded from talks about any “quarantine ring” in London.
He said: “Our surprise is such that far reaching contingency plans have been discussed and tested without the involvement of London’s government. This is clearly totally unacceptable and an affront to London and Londoners. We are accountable to nine million Londoners and have a duty to represent their views and best interests. We also know our communities and their needs far better than national Government.”
Sadiq Khan also pointed out that it has been 12 weeks since he was invited to a Cobra meeting and warned against “riding roughshod over democratically elected representatives”.
Yesterday, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said there are no plans to put the whole of London into lockdown at the moment.
He said: “We’re taking a very localised approach following the data and I’m working, for example, with each of the directors of public health in the London boroughs who are monitoring the rate of transmission in their own areas very closely.
“There is no plan, as far as I’m aware, to do anything broader in London.”
A total of 35,609 people have tested positive for coronavirus in London, with 6,879 deaths reported, according to the latest Government data.
The latest Figures from the Department of Health show the number of coronavirus cases in Hackney and Barnet have soared.
The total number of cases in Hackney and the City of London is 973 – two areas that were joined together by Public Health England for data-collection purposes.
In Barnet, the total number of confirmed cases is 1,682.
