by Reuters<\/p>\n
* Britain making changes in local lockdown tiers<\/p>\n
* London moving to ‘high’ alert from ‘medium’ on Friday – Times<\/p>\n
* Manchester may move to ‘very high’ risk area<\/p>\n
* Concerns grow over economic hardships (Adds London measure)<\/p>\n
By Guy Faulconbridge<\/p>\n
LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – London, Europe’s richest city with 9 million people, was heading for a tighter COVID-19 lockdown from midnight on Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to tackle a swiftly accelerating second coronavirus wave.<\/p>\n
The disease, which emerged in China last year and has killed over a million people worldwide, is spreading in most parts of the United Kingdom, whose official death toll of 43,155 is the highest in Europe.<\/p>\n
Anger, though, is rising over the economic, social and health costs of the biggest curtailment of freedoms since wartime: one former government adviser warned some people would have trouble clothing their children soon.<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will address parliament at around 1030 GMT: he is expected to announce changes to the government’s patchwork of three-tier local lockdowns.<\/p>\n
London will move to “high” alert level from “medium” at midnight on Friday, The Times reported.<\/p>\n
“It is my expectation that the government will today announce that London will shortly be moving into tier 2 or the high alert level of restrictions,” added mayor Sadiq Khan, saying nobody wanted the measures but action had to come fast.<\/p>\n
“I must warn Londoners: We’ve got a difficult winter ahead.”<\/p>\n
In the capital, a global financial centre rivalled only by New York, 11 boroughs are seeing more than 100 new cases a week per 100,000 people. The worst hit areas are Richmond, Hackney, the City of London, Ealing, Redbridge and Harrow.<\/p>\n
‘PEOPLE NOT COPING’<\/p>\n
Manchester, the largest city in northern England, could also move to “very high” from “high”.<\/p>\n
Johnson, who won a landslide election in December, says his government is fighting a war against the virus and that some sacrifices are necessary to save lives.<\/p>\n
But opponents say the government was too slow to act when the virus first struck, failed to protect the elderly in care homes, and bungled the testing system.<\/p>\n
In areas in the high alert level, socialising outside households or support bubbles is not allowed indoors though work can continue and schools continue to operate.<\/p>\n
The “very high” alert level forbids socialising, forces pubs and bars to close and prohibits travel outside the area.<\/p>\n
The government’s former homelessness adviser Louise Casey said the United Kingdom faces a “period of destitution” in which families “can’t put shoes on” children.<\/p>\n
“Are we actually asking people in places like Liverpool to go out and prostitute themselves, so that they could put food on the table?” Louise Casey told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Liverpool is already in the highest-risk tier.<\/p>\n
“There’s this sense from Downing Street and from Westminster that people will make do. Well, they weren’t coping before COVID,” Casey added. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Sarah Young; Editing by Paul Sandle and Andrew Cawthorne)<\/p>\n
___ ‘Difficult winter ahead’: London heads for stricter lockdown by Reuters * Britain making changes in local lockdown tiers * London moving to ‘high’ alert from ‘medium’ on Friday – Times * Manchester may move to ‘very high’ risk area * … Continue reading
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