Dr Hilary Jones on possible '11pm curfew' and 'foolish' weekend party-goers

Dr Hilary Jones has predicted bars and pubs will face an 11pm coronavirus-induced curfew as he spoke out against the ‘foolish’ flooding of establishments and of huge get-togethers over the weekend.

His comments came as as the government’s ‘rule of six’ was introduced on Monday.

The new measures ban gatherings of more than six people in an attempt to stop increasing coronavirus cases.

The TV doctor told Lorraine Kelly on her ITV programme: ‘The R-rate is above one. It’s probably 1.2 in some places, 1.7 – which means we could be seeing doubling of cases every 7.7 days.

‘Now, 3,000 cases for the last three days on the trot – that’s going to be 6,000 in a week’s time, 12,000 a week after that. We’re going to be where France is in two weeks’ time.

‘It’s really shocking that people don’t have the imagination to understand what’s going on here. People say “ah, we’ve got measures coming in on Monday, we can only have six people meeting up together – so let’s have a big party this weekend!” It’s so foolish.’

The government’s ‘rule of six’ on social gatherings comes into effect today.

Remarking on footage of hundreds of party-goers in a town centre, Dr Hilary said: ‘Someone’s compared this to a crack in a dam. You know it’s going to burst soon, so why put more pressure, more water?’

After touching on the ‘chaos’ of Test and Trace, Dr Hilary went on: ‘Will we see a national lockdown again? I don’t think we will.

‘I think we’ll see a measured response.

‘What we might see is curfew from 11pm. Clubs, bars and restaurants closed from 10pm. That happened in Cyprus. It seems to have worked there, it’s got really low figures.’

The ‘rule of six’ applies to indoor and outdoor gatherings.

The restrictions follow a recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey of medical students and doctors in England, which indicated 86% believe a second peak of the virus is likely in the next six months unless precautions are taken.

Lorraine airs weekdays on ITV at 9am.

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