The government is considering changing the caste system again once the current lockdown in England ends after December 2, it has appeared.
Previously, it was confirmed that a stratified system would be used to manage Coronavirus infection rates after the country left the current lockdown.
However, ministers are now contemplating dividing England into various large territories before reimposing gradual restrictions.
This means that the entire Northeast, Northwest, Southwest or Southeast can be treated as only one region.
Sources also cautioned that Level 4 could be considered if infection rates do not decrease under Level 3 restrictions.
To add to the confusion, the sources suggested that pre-existing levels may also change when the country emerges from lockdown in early December.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said regions will not necessarily come out of the current lockdown to the same level they have been in the last month
Currently, Level 1 restrictions are described as “medium risk” with Level 2 “high” and level 3 “very high”.
Under Level 3 rules, restaurants can open, but only until 10 PM, and pubs and bars should be closed unless they are also operating as a restaurant.
This definition extends to bars that sell “big” meals, which like restaurants will be allowed to stay open but only serve alcoholic drinks to people who have a meal.
Locals are only advised to leave their areas for essential travel such as work, education or health, and they should return before the end of the day.
Overnight accommodations are also prohibited for those outside of these “high risk” areas. Families are not allowed to mix either indoors or outdoors.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said regions will not necessarily come out of the current lockdown to the same level they have been in the last month.
One of the sources told The Telegraph: “We will return to the regional approach after the closure, and the government has not said explicitly at this stage that the levels will be exactly the same.”
People can enter lower strata if they comply with lockdown rules and the R rate falls. The government will determine what the tiered system looks like a week before the lockdown ends on December 2.
Another source told The Telegraph that there is a “high probability” that the government will move from placing cities or individual areas in strata to a new system of restrictions at the district level.
Despite frustration and confusion over the ever-evolving rules, sources claim the move will be an attempt to “simplify the system”.
The Whitehall source also acknowledged that an additional level would likely be introduced to combat infection levels.
Some data last week indicated that the second wave may have stabilized or peaked before the lockdown began last Thursday, adding to the pressure on Boris Johnson to lift sweeping restrictions.
Senior lawmakers said the prime minister – who is allegedly believed to have pushed back to the extreme – should not keep the restrictions in place throughout the month just to “ maximize the pain, ” amid promising indications that the troop buildup is already fading.
Johnson reluctantly signed the measures for England last weekend after government scientists warned that the deaths could rise to 4,000 cases a day – four times the peak seen in April.
The decision was expedited with minimal consultation with the cabinet after news of the warning, and the prime minister’s reaction to it, was leaked to news organizations, including the Daily Mail.
However, the 4000-a-day had been widely discredited and government scholars had to correct other dangerous warnings used to inform the lockdown decision.
Despite this, the prime minister has officially refused so far to rule out an extension of the current lockdown that ends on December 2.
Yesterday, new data emerged indicating that Level 3 restrictions were helping to beat the virus in the northwest.
Figures indicate that hospital admission for the Coronavirus in the northwest reached its peak ten days before the closure was imposed.
Figures from the Ministry of Health’s Coronavirus Dashboard reveal that the average daily Covid-19 admission was 308.4 on October 26 but has been dropping every day since then.
They were down 13 percent to 268.4 by November 4, the day before England’s second shutdown. The latest data has not been released yet.
In the second tier, hospitalizations in London appeared to have peaked seven days before the lockdown, dropping 8 per cent from 127.4 to 117.7 in the seven-day period to 4 November.
Reportedly, the chart, along with several other doomsday projections, led the prime minister to feel a backlash in the decision to impose another lockdown, according to an ally in the cabinet.
Tier 3 restrictions were imposed in Liverpool on October 14, in Lancashire on October 17, and in Greater Manchester on October 23.
Other areas, such as Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire, followed suit later, with local authorities aiming to reduce infections to prevent hospitals from collapsing.
The harsher measures at the time, in which about 10 million people lived, saw the closure of bars and bars in all local authorities, and the prohibition of mixing between families.
Average daily hospitalizations for Covid-19 peaked in the Northwest on October 26, and in London on October 29
Bristol is the only place in the 50 largest coronavirus hotspots in England in the south. The southwestern city of 463,400 people was diagnosed with 410 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 6 November, nearly half of Oldham’s case, which ranked first with 779 cases per 100,000.
Reduced social contact caused the infection to start spreading across all local authorities in Liverpool two weeks after it came into effect, and in most areas of Lancashire a few days later.
Officials said a decrease in the number of hospitalizations would delay cases because it takes longer for an infected person to develop symptoms severe enough to be hospitalized.
This means that they began to decline a week after infection, which experts said was due to the longer time period it took for a person to enter hospital.
The numbers also reveal that daily acceptance never reached the same level as in the first wave in the northwest, when it reached 412.9 per day on April 4.
But the total number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the region rose above numbers in the second wave on November 4, when it reached 2,793 per day.
Experts said many of these patients would just be tested and added to these numbers, rather than being admitted to the wards after contracting the disease in the community.
NHS figures show that about 18 percent of hospital patients with Covid-19 contracted it while in hospital during the month of October. That’s up from nine percent a month ago.
The Health Minister said that the comprehensive coronavirus test used in Liverpool will be spread across 66 local authorities
Across England, hospital treatment also began to slow in the week leading up to the second national lockdown, indicating that the set of additional measures put in place were helping reduce infections.
Government data showed that average daily hospitalizations rose by 30 percent between October 21 and 28, from 946.7 to 1226.9 per day.
But in the following week through November 4, their number rose by only 6 percent, to 1,298, indicating a slowdown in hospitalizations.
The largest rises were seen in the southeast and southwest, at 31 percent to 112.9 per day and 26 percent to 96.1 per day, respectively, in the most recent data week.
But experts indicated that these numbers were below levels in the north, indicating that more stringent measures are needed to limit the spread of the coronavirus – rather than a second lockdown.
Boris Johnson said England will return to the tiered system after the close.
This comes as Britain recorded 532 more Covid-19 deaths yesterday, its highest daily total since May.
This brings the total to the UK to 49,770, the highest number reported in a single day since May 12.
However, cases are only 2 per cent higher than last week, with 20,412 cases confirmed on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, 20,018 cases of the virus were recorded.
This brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,233,775.
Separate government figures show there were 13,617 Covid-19 patients in hospitals in England on Sunday, up from 11,557 a week ago, while there were 1,268 in ventilated beds as of Monday, up from 1,075 a week ago.
A total of 1,366 patients with Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Friday, the most recent number available, compared to 1,350 the previous week.
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