It's been a tough week for keeping track of the coronavirus situation in the UK. So what's going on?
And don't forget the basic methods of keeping yourself and others safe from the virus: wash your hands often, wear a face covering inAn electrical circuit-breaker is an automatic switch which detects faults and stops power flowing through a device, to prevent it from overheating or short-circuiting.The phrase "circuit-breaker" is being used to describe a short, nationwide lockdown, to help slow the spread of Covid-19.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for a circuit-breaker in England, after it emerged that the government's scientific advisers said it would be a good idea., the hope is a circuit-breaker would be less damaging - to the economy and to people's mental health - than the first lockdown we had. Not everyone is buying into the electrical metaphor. Wales's First Minister Mark Drakeford has instead termed the possibility of a two-week lockdown a "fire-break", designed to bring the virus rate down and help "get us through to Christmas".The BBC's Laura Foster explains what a circuit breaker is and how it could help tackle Covid-19We measure the epidemic in several different ways, but coronavirus cases are definitely rising.
Infections are going up rapidly, with an estimated 27,900 new cases a day in homes in England in the seven days up to 8 October - a 60% increase on the previous week - according to the Office for National Statistics. This figure is far higher than the number of confirmed cases announced by the government each day - which has risen to a daily average of 16,228 in the past week.Also, the reproduction number has risen slightly in the past week to between 1.3 and 1.
There is some hope. Despite the continued rise in cases, experts have pointed out we are no longer seeing the runaway increase of a fortnight ago. And last month's morbid warning from scientists
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