Coronavirus: Londoners could be told to work from home this week, Matt Hancock warns

Modelling suggests capital only days behind coronavirus hotspots

Londoners could be told to work from home this week, the health secretary has warned, as coronavirus cases surge.

Matt Hancock said he had been speaking with Sadiq Khan over the weekend and that meetings about possible further restrictions in the capital will be held later on Sunday.

“I’ve been talking to the mayor of London over the weekend about what’s needed in London, and that’s an example of local action,” Mr Hancock told Times Radio.

“In the same way that I was talking to the councils in the northeast and then we took action in Lancashire as well last week and we had to bring in more measures in Wolverhampton.

“The conversation is an ongoing one I have with the mayor.”

Asked if working from home could be a possibility for Londoners from this week onwards, the health secretary responded: “Well, I wouldn’t rule it out.”

The comments come after Mr Khan urged ministers to extend regional measures, including working from home and ordering bars and restaurants to close at 10pm, to cover the capital.

Mayoral sources said cases in London are now just “two or three days” behind hotspots in the northwest and northeast, which have been placed under new controls.

“We can’t afford more delay,” the source added. 

Introducing restrictions in London would be in sharp contrast to the government’s line, which until recently urged people to get back to their offices following the easing of lockdown.

But the mayoral source said clamping down now to help slow the spread of Covid-19 could potentially “prevent the need for a fuller lockdown like we saw in March, which could seriously damage the economy once again”.

Mr Hancock has warned Britain is at a “tipping point” and refused to rule out a second national lockdown if the public fails to follow social distancing rules.

As of Tuesday, around 13.5 million people across the UK will be facing some form of local restrictions as authorities try to control the spread of the disease.

Cases of the coronavirus have risen sharply in recent weeks to more than 4,000 per day.