British COVID-19 testing adviser calls for 'circuit-breaker' lockdown

A professor who has advised the British government on its COVID-19 testing programme said on Saturday a short nationwide lockdown was needed due to “eye-watering” levels of infection in parts of England. As a second wave of infections gathers pace, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has favoured local restrictions in areas where cases are surging - hoping to shield the economy by allowing the least-affected regions to remain open. Johnson reiterated on Friday his belief in a localised approach rather than a new, temporary national lockdown, even as half of the United Kingdom’s people live in places subject to enhanced COVID-19 restrictions.. But John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, said the current measures did not go far enough and called for a brief but strict national lockdown - known as a “circuit-breaker”.