Covid-19 pandemic a ‘nightmare’ and a ‘disaster’: Boris

LONDON: The coronavirus pandemic has been an “absolute nightmare” and a “disaster” for the country, Boris Johnson has said, as he promised a “whack-a-mole” strategy to tackling local flare-ups of the virus.

The Prime Minister told the newly launched Times Radio he wanted to set out a plan to “bounce forward” following the pandemic. “This has been a disaster, let’s not mince our words, this has been an absolute nightmare for the country,” he said.

“The country has gone through a profound shock. But in those moments you have the opportunity to change and to do things better. We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband — you name it.”

He said there will be “some bumpy times” ahead but the UK will get through the economic fallout, adding that people “instinctively” knew it would be tough. “We’ve seen a big fall in our GDP and everybody understands as we come out of it there are going to be some bumpy times but the UK is an amazingly dynamic, resilient economy and we’re going to come through it very, very well indeed,” he said.

The PM insisted now was not the time to “step back” from supporting the economy, adding: “The government will remain very, very much engaged with people, with businesseshelping everybody to get through this. “We had to put our arms around the UK economy, we had to do the coronavirus job retention scheme, the furlough scheme, all sorts of amazing loans, bounce-back loans and so on, to help businesses, we can’t just now step back.

“So what we’re going to be doing in the next few months is really doubling down on our initial agenda which was all about investment, if you remember, in infrastructure, in education, in technology, to bring the country together.”

Johnson said an economic effort like the one enacted by former US president Franklin D Roosevelt in his New Deal out of the great depression was now needed.

The PM acknowledged he had been “very lucky” in his recovery from coronavirus and said the experience had given him an “even deeper love and admiration for the NHS and everything they can do”.

But he said he worries about coronavirus deaths and infection rates every day, adding that it was vital to be ready to crack down on local flare-ups. “Local hospital admissions are coming down, so are the death numbers,” he said.

“They are much, much lower than they were a few weeks ago and that is encouraging. But the crucial thing is to make sure we are ready to crack down on local flare-ups. We have a whack-a-mole strategy.”

The PM’s comments come after Leicester recorded 866 new cases of coronavirus in the last two weeks – leading to speculation over the weekend that the city would be locked down.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby told LBC he was “angry and frustrated” that a meeting with government officials scheduled for 9am on Monday had been cancelled.

He said a document sent to him by the government at around 1am had “very little substance” and only suggested that restrictions due to be lifted for the rest of the country on July 4 should remain in place for Leicester for an extra two weeks.

Labour MP for Leicester East, Claudia Webbe, said she believes a local lockdown is necessary for her constituency due to risk factors for coroanvirus including poverty and “significant levels of African and Asian minority ethnic communities”.