LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pondering a second national COVID-19 lockdown as the novel coronavirus outbreak accelerates.
New COVID-19 cases are rising by at least 6,000 per day in Britain, according to week old data, hospital admissions are doubling every eight days and the testing system is buckling.
“We’re certainly at a very critical moment this morning,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky. “It is clear that we are just a few weeks behind what we’re seeing elsewhere in Europe.”
“It is very important that we do everything we can to sort of bear down on this,” Shapps said. “We’ll hear from others including the prime minister on the proposed next steps.”
Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, are due to…