Boris warns of a second wave

On a visit to Nottingham this morning, Boris Johnson warned that a second wave of Covid-19 could be on the verge of ‘starting to bubble up’ in Europe. Meanwhile, he defended his government’s lightning-speed reintroduction of a 14-day quarantine for travellers entering the UK from Spain. But concerns of a second wave are not solely related to Spain or select European countries. Yesterday the Financial Times revealed the Prime Minister’s warning to over a dozen businesses that the threat of another Covid wave in autumn is very real. It’s not just what’s happening abroad, but the possibility of infection rates spiking within the UK that has captured the government’s attention.

It is not yet clear whether the spike in Covid detection will translate directly to higher hospital caseload or death tolls. In Spain, the new infections are predominately thought to be amongst young people who didn’t adhere to social distancing. In Sweden, more testing saw official Covid rates spike last month but the number of Covid deaths continued a steady decline.