Newly-released documents, written the day before the second national lockdown was imposed, show a consensus statement prepared by a modelling subgroup of Sage raised concerns about returning to the tier system. On Friday, Sage said that the R rate for the UK has fallen to 1-1.2, with experts believing it is already below 1 in some places. It comes after a sub-group of SAGE warned yesterday that Christmas is still in jeopardy unless social distancing rules are toughened up after England's second lockdown. SAGE insisted, however, that it still isn't clear whether the Tier Three rules are strong enough to keep the R rate below one in the longer term. The case count is the highest since the Covid-19 outbreak began and comes a week after England's second national lockdown started.

Source: Daily Mail November 14, 2020 14:33 UTC