The FT’s Seb Payne and Oliver Barnes have an intriguing line quoting Whitehall insiders who say the government is unlikely to activate Plan B before mid-November, when the COP summit has concluded. Whatever happened to data not dates? The Telegraph’s Laura Donnelly, Harry Yorke and Sarah Knapton have seen work done at official level in the Cabinet Office on a potential “Plan C,” which might see another ban on households mixing. Officials might be looking at this, but No. 10 insist it’s “totally untrue” to suggest ministers are considering it.
Changing mood:
A factor in ministers’ desire to resist stricter measures is their belief phone number library that, while the public were overwhelmingly supportive of the lockdowns and restrictions pre-vaccine, the mood changed once people got double-jabbed. Kantar polling for More in Common finds just over 60 percent of people are fairly or very concerned about the prospect of another lockdown.
On the plus … There was at least some good news from yesterday’s Javid presser. The government has bought 730,000 doses of new antiviral drugs that could halve the risk of COVID hospitalization and death. The Mail splashes on the “miracle pill.”
Staycations are back: Ministers might be chill about cases rising to 100,000 a day, but other countries around the world are not. From this morning Morocco has banned flights to and from the U.K. citing our sky-high COVID rates, essentially putting us on their red list — and who can blame them? Should this trend continue over the next two months, it raises the possibility of sun-seeking winter holidays suddenly becoming a lot harder. Playbook would also spare a thought for those with families choosing a domain for your emails abroad who are hoping to see them this Christmas and who now face another nervous few months.
YESTERDAY’S UK COVID STATS:
49,319 new cases, 5,581 on Tuesday. In the last seven days there have sms to data been 320,594 positive cases, 47,084 on the previous week … 179 reported deaths within 28 days of a positive test, 44 on Tuesday. In the last seven days there have been 954 reported deaths, 166 on the previous week. As of the latest data 7,891 COVID patients are in hospital.
