England’s chief medical officer on Monday described the economy as “extremely challenging winter” as a competition for ministers to expand the UK Sun-Treasury’s UK-wide business assistance loan program.

Mr Sunak is expected to unveil plans this week to expand his four loan projects, which have already spent 53 53 billion to fund companies through government guarantees, signaling that new national assistance measures are needed to prevent the collapse of large businesses and massive job losses.

The move comes as the government moves toward stronger business, with new national restrictions in English on whether the government should do more to prevent the spread of Covid-19. On Sunday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan met with ministers in the capital to discuss possible new restrictions.

The UK trend is going in the wrong direction. We are in a critical moment of the epidemic

A spokesman for Mr Khan said the situation was “clearly deteriorating” and hinted at impending action: “We cannot risk delays because the mayor wants immediate action.”

Mr Khan is considering urging workers to stay indoors and has overturned recent government efforts to bring people back to their offices.

The drumbeat of stricter restrictions will intensify on Monday when England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Patrick Valens brief the public on the latest Covid-19 information.

“The UK trend is heading in the wrong direction,” Professor Whitty would say. “We are in a critical moment of the epidemic. We are looking at data to see how the virus can be managed before the Winter Challenge. ”

Hospital admissions in England are doubling every eight days, and on Friday the number – or fertility rate – for the virus stood between 1.1 and 1.4. Scientists fear Britain is looking for France and Spain, where the virus has spread very rapidly in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has said he wants to avoid a national lockdown and has agreed with Mr Sunak that sanctions, at least for now, should be aimed at preventing social interaction rather than shutting down trade.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “we are looking at all options” and Professor Whitty is pushing for a “circuit breaker” strategy to delay the spread of the virus – possibly a new national ban that has been in place for two weeks.

Mr Sunak has vowed to be “creative” in finding ways to support jobs through the autumn and was under pressure from Labor and some Tory MPs to expand the Fallu scheme – or put it in place of a replacement – after it expires on October 31.

Under the scheme prepared by the Treasury, business loan schemes will be extended till the end of November for application and banks will be allowed to process the loans till the end of the year. The Treasury declined to comment.

Applications for three programs were due to expire this month. The fourth – “Bounce Back” scheme – was supposed to close in early November.

According to two people familiar with the talks, the expansion will include the Future Fund – an innovative support program that the government will see a large number of fast-growing start-ups forced to take state-backed convertibles.

The Treasury has previously resisted calls from business leaders to extend the duration of the project, a source close to the talks said, adding that officials were keen to cancel the costly aid packages as soon as possible.

The decision is aimed at re-assisting companies affected by further lockdowns at the regional or national level or forcing them to close their doors again under the new curfew.

According to UKhospitality, which represents the sector, restaurants and bars have already wiped out more than half of their businesses in various parts of the north this weekend.

Most of the state-backed loans have been through the “bounce back” scheme – offering offers of up to 000 50,000 on an interest-free basis – which has so far been used by more than 1.1 million merchants with more than 35 billion in ing.

More than 600,000 businesses have borrowed .7 13.7 billion using the coronavirus business barrier loan scheme, which pays back up to 5 5 million. Coronavirus is a large business barrier project – which guarantees a share of up to 200 200 million. Contributed 3.5bn nd.

With the Office of Budget Liability estimates that up to 40 percent of “bounce back” recipients are struggling to pay off their debts, the amount of damage the government can deal with will raise concerns.