Later today, the ONS coronavirus survey will confirm that Covid-19 is on the march again everywhere, not just in regional pockets — though there are regional variations. And it will also show that infection is rising in all age groups, though the incidence of the illness is highest by a margin among those aged 17 to 29.
Which is why, as I reported earlier in the week, the government is looking at introducing additional social-distancing measures on a national basis — such as forcing pubs, clubs and restaurants to turf out customers at 10 p.m., or reverting to closing them altogether, for a couple of weeks or so.
It’s rum that a supposedly libertarian Tory government does not trust people to do the right thing
And the strong hope of Boris Johnson and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, is that implementing this kind of ‘circuit breaker’ will allow the non-social parts of life (going to work, school and university) to continue in their current abnormally reconfigured way.
To be clear, virus and epidemic experts are divided about these measures.
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