The government is at risk of repeating its own mistakes over coronavirus

Editorial: Whether it is a ‘second wave’ of the virus or merely the first wave reviving, the number of cases is rising across the world

No wonder Boris Johnson is looking for someone to front the public presentation of the government’s coronavirus strategy. It is so confused and confusing that it is impossible to understand, let alone justify. That in itself represents a considerable risk to controlling the coming resurgence in the virus.

Whether it is a “second wave” or merely the first wave reviving, the number of cases is rising in places across the world. From Florida and California, from Spain and Belgium to Vietnam and Hong Kong, the epidemic is returning, even where it seemed under control. The trend is unwelcome but indisputable. In Britain there are local outbreaks and the overall number of infections, though still relatively low, has been edging up for the first time since the April peak.

For a open country such as Britain, the danger is clear. The government is right to be concerned about people returning from places such as Spain, although the rushed and illogical presentation of the quarantine policy was hardly a model of clarity. As with the previous attempts at quarantine, all such efforts are useless without some method of enforcement and a gesture of financial support for those forced to miss work for weeks. Testing, starting at the airport, would be a better way to proceed.

Yet at the same time that the UK is tightening up on those entering Britain, it is pressing ahead with further relaxations of social distancing – on social life, on “encouraging” people to return to their workplaces and, soon, children going back to school. This is not a consistent approach to a global trend of rising infection, which may be being driven by the young (some, no doubt, under a false sense of safety because it tends to affect younger people less severely). To borrow the prime minister’s phrase, they are once again starting to think themselves invincible.

Britain, like other countries, is in danger of repeating the very mistakes that were made in February and March: underestimating the danger, and then being slow to act – for fear of public opinion and the hurt to the economy. What would happen, to give one example, if a renewed lockdown came into force just as the furlough scheme is being phased out in October?

There are no easy choices here, as we now know from those taken in March. An early lockdown then would have saved many lives.

The government needs to be as good as its word and postpone some of the new relaxations, at least until the picture becomes much clearer. The precautionary principle applies once again; it is the best way to protect the economy, as well as the NHS, and to save lives.