UK govt meets to discuss new lockdown as virus cases surge

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was holding an unscheduled Cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss a new national lockdown for England, after scientific advisers warned that hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus could soon surpass the levels seen at the outbreak’s spring peak when daily deaths surpassed 1,000.

Johnson's office said the afternoon meeting would discuss “the government's coronavirus response.” It came after the Times of London reported that Johnson could announce a month-long lockdown as soon as Monday, though the government said no final decisions had been made.

London School of Hygiene epidemiologist John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said Saturday that cases were running “significantly above” a reasonable worst-case scenario drawn up by modelers.

“It is really unthinkable now, unfortunately, that we don’t count our deaths in tens of thousands from this wave,” Edmunds told the BBC. “The issue is, is that going to be low tens of thousands if we take radical action now or is that going to be the high tens of thousands if we don’t?”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has introduced a system of local restrictions for England based on levels of infection. But scientists say it has not been enough to tame a surge of COVID-19 cases, and Britain is likely to join other European countries such as France, Germany and Belgium in imposing a second lockdown.

Any new lockdown would likely see non-essential businesses close and people told to stay mostly at home, though schools would remain open.

The measures would apply to England. Other parts of the U.K. set their own public health measures, with Wales and Northern Ireland already effectively in lockdown and Scotland under a set of...