Medical director at Portsmouth's QA Hospital warns of rising Covid infections and need to follow guidelines

Dr John Knighton, medical director of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, made the statement after prime minister Boris Johnson announced a second lockdown which will start on Thursday.

The latest figures revealed an infection rate across the city of 201.9 per 100,000 and Queen Alexandra Hospital has also confirmed another Covid death, taking the total to 242 deaths since the onset of the pandemic.

Dr Knighton said: ‘We’ve all seen the news over the weekend about a new period of lockdown to try and curb the spread of Covid 19 infections. Here in Portsmouth we are seeing more patients with Covid and its effects in our intensive care units and across the hospital.

‘We all have an individual and collective responsibility to try and minimise the spread of Covid through our community. It’s now spreading not just in younger age groups but in the more elderly and more vulnerable groups who are becoming our patients.

In order for any measures to work, Dr Knighton believes it’s vital that individuals take responsibility to follow the rules.

He added: ‘I would ask anyone before the period of lockdown starts to follow all the existing guidelines to avoid meeting in large groups, to wear face coverings as directed and to wash hands regularly.’

The warning comes as Boris Johnson made a public statement to Parliament about why he had decided a national lockdown was necessary to bring the rate of infection under control. The prime minister had previously insisted his tiered regional system was the correct localised approach.

Mr Johnson said: ‘Faced with these latest figures (presented by government scientists), there’s no alternative but to take further action at a national level.’

Warning of a potential ‘medical disaster’ if the measures weren’t introduced, Mr Johnson added: ‘Doctors and nurses could be forced to choose which patients to treat, who would live and who would die. If we fail to get coronavirus under control, it’s the sheer weight of demand from Covid patients that would deprive others of the care they need.’

With MPs set to vote on the proposal on Wednesday, Havant MP Alan Mak is in support of the lockdown.

Mr Mak said: ‘Infection rates are rising locally and we need to protect the NHS and especially older people. I hope these time limited measures will stop a surge of Covid. We need to return to the localised tier system as quickly as possible and I hope these temporary measures will get us there.’

The decision has also received the support of minister of state for health and Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage.

Mrs Dinenage said: ‘Now cases are rising quickly in most parts of the country it's time to take further action.

‘The extension of furlough, self-employed support and other measures will be welcome to many who will naturally be worried about the coming months. We all want this virus under control and, as the PM has made clear, if we follow these rules now we can hope to see progress in time for Christmas.’

SEE ALSO: 23 Covid case hotspots in Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, Gosport, Fareham and Test Valley in last week

Portsmouth South and Labour MP, Stephen Morgan, believes the lockdown has come too late.

He said: ‘What we learnt from the first wave of this virus is that if you don’t act early and decisively, the cost will be far worse.

‘More people will lose their jobs, more businesses will be forced to close and tragically, more people will lose their loved ones. The prime minister and the chancellor failed to learn this lesson.

‘As a result, this second lockdown will be longer than it needed to be, it will be harder and the human cost will be higher.’

Mr Morgan feels the lockdown needs to be used to ‘fix the test and trace’ system which has come in for wide spread criticism.

The timing of the decision was also criticised by Portsmouth City Council leader, Gerald Vernon-Jackson who said: ‘The government have dithered on what to do. If they are wanting to follow the science then we should have done it weeks ago.’

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