Hard-hit Liverpool faces resurgent Covid outbreak ? and more pub closures

And many Britons, public health experts included, say another national lockdown, the first since March, is now inevitable.Rita Smith, 81, has been the owner — or “publican” — at Kavanagh’s for 28 years, welcoming loyal drinkers into this community hub to enjoy live music and quiz nights.“It’s unique, it’s one-off, it’s history, it’s the best example of what Liverpool is about,” she says of the quirky pub that takes its name from the man who ran it for the first half of the 20th century.The pub is recognized for its architectural significance on England’s list of national heritage buildings — but that has not spared it from the pandemic.The closing of all U.K. pubs in March — and subsequent restrictions like a nationally mandated 10 p.m. dining and drinking curfew — meant revenues so far this year had more than halved compared to the same point in the calendar last year, Smith told NBC News in a phone interview from inside the now deserted pub.The business she calls her "passion" reclosed on Tuesday night alongside an estimated 970 other drinking venues in Liverpool, its suburbs and neighboring towns, following the British government’s announcement of fresh Covid-19 restrictions that target regions of the country with the highest rates of infections.Pubs that do not serve food, like Kavanagh's, must remain closed for the next four weeks, at which point such local lockdowns will be reviewed, under new rules that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday.Nonetheless, fearful of the huge rise in cases across Liverpool, Smith says these measures are being enacted too late.