Boris Johnson announces four-week Covid lockdown in England

Key points in COVID lockdown Mark 2 Restrictions will start at midnight on Thursday morning and last until December 2. Papers drawn up by government advisers show daily death projections from different epidemic modelling groups, compared with the first wave and the government's previous 'reasonable worst-case scenario' - marked in black Medical chief Chris Whitty said cases now appeared to be going up across England, apart from possibly in the North East After weeks insisting he is sticking to local restrictions, the PM completed an humiliating U-turn by announcing blanket coronavirus restrictions for England at a prime-time press conference alongside medical and science chiefs Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance There were big queues at supermarkets today despite bad weather as residents in England stocked up in anticipation of the grim lockdown news Data from the Office for National Statistics estimated almost 52,000 people were catching the virus every day and one in every 100 people in the country were infected with Covid-19 a week ago Separate data from King's College London predicted England has around 32,000 cases per day and claimed infections are rising 'steadily' and 'have not spiralled out of control' THREE CRUCIAL DAYS: HOW No10 WAS BOUNCED INTO ANNOUNCING ENGLAND-WIDE SHUTDOWN Thursday, October 29 New Imperial College study A Government-led study by Imperial College London is published which states that nearly 100,000 people in the UK are getting infected with Covid-19 every day. The PM and his advisers presented a bewildering array of charts to back up their claim that tougher action is needed Schools are expected to remain open, but a source claimed to The Times that non-essential shops would shut and today, in similar scenes to the first wave in March, people were seen stocking up on toilet roll Nicola Sturgeon made clear this afternoon that she does not intend to shift her policy based on the new arrangements for England Percentage change in coronavirus cases across England in the week to October 25: The five local authorities where the infection rate grew the most are: Kingston upon Hull City, 92.81 per cent; Derby, 91.84 per cent; North Somerset, 82.99 per cent; Medway, 77.17 per cent; and Bath and North East Somerset 69.72 per cent Chief medical officer Chris Whitty in Whitehall today as the government prepares to make its announcement. The data 'forcing Boris into lockdown': SAGE release papers showing they sounded alarm two weeks ago, UK is headed for 'worse than worst case scenario' including 85,000 deaths - and 52,000 are catching virus every day The Government's SAGE advisers released papers yesterday evening that showed how they warned ministers two weeks ago that Britain could be headed for a more serious situation than their 'worst case scenario' The revelation that Boris Johnson is plunging Britain into a new national lockdown followed days of briefings and leaks from government advisers - who say coronavirus cases in the UK are accelerating faster than their worst case scenario and the nation could face 1,000 deaths a day within a month. SAGE released a document from October 14 that show the group warned two weeks ago that the virus was spreading faster than their 'worst case scenario' and there were up to 75,000 new infections per day The worrying figures from SAGE are behind Prime Minister Boris Johnson's expected decision to announce a new national lockdown next week after his scientific advisers told him it was the only way to save Christmas.