Sadiq Khan says new London Covid restrictions this week are ‘inevitable’
Sadiq Khan has said new Covid restrictions in London are now “inevitable” just a day after the capital was put into the lowest risk category by the government.
Khan said today that all the vital indicators show London is certain to be put into the tier two category within days, meaning the capital would be deemed as high risk and that new Covid restrictions would be implemented.
Boris Johnson’s new three-tier alert system yesterday placed London in tier one, meaning it is medium risk and that restrictions stayed the same.
If the capital goes into the second tier then indoor household mixing will be banned completely.
Khan told Sky News: “Hospital admissions, ICU occupancy, the numbers of older people with the cases, the prevalence of the disease – the positives are all going in the wrong direction.
“I’m afraid this means it is inevitable over the course of the next few days that London will have passed a trigger point to be in the second tier – what is called high.”
London now has around 90 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, which almost puts it on par with areas that have been put into the tier two risk category.
The West Midlands, for example, has 123 cases per 100,000 people and is in tier two.
The London boroughs with the highest current rates of Covid are Richmond, Hackney, Ealing, Redbrige and Harrow.
All of which have more than 100 cases per 100,000, which Khan suggested was the threshold to be put into the high risk category.
The mayor said he did not want to see different restrictions for different boroughs, even though case numbers widely vary.
“We’re keen to go as one as we can see the complexities and the confusion caused by some boroughs having additional restrictions and other boroughs having less,” he said.
“Many Londoners work in one borough, live in another borough, study in another borough, go to a restaurant in another borough so we’re really keen to go as one city.”
Responding to the mayor’s comments, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “There’s an established process and it’s not for me to pre empt it. We look at a wide range of different data and take advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and health officials on the ground.”