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The country will enter a second general lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, from next week and for a monthsaid Boris Johnson, confirming what several local media had anticipated this Saturday.
“We have to be humble before nature”he said in a press conference called suddenly and delayed several times during a day of intense government meetings and leaks to the press that accelerated an announcement initially scheduled for Monday.
“Unless we act, we could see the deaths in this country reach thousands a day“He added along with his top scientific and medical advisers, Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty.
From Thursday until December 2, the 56 million inhabitants of England They will only be able to leave home to buy food, go to the doctor, exercise or go to work if it is impossible for them to do it remotely, he explained.
All non-essential shops and entertainment venues will have to close, but unlike the first lockdown, kindergartens, schools and universities will remain open. The measures will be debated and voted on by parliament on Wednesday.
React late against the coronavirus
Much criticized during the first wave for having reacted late and later on the serious consequences of confinement In the British economy, Johnson had resisted reimposing measures at the national level.
It was harshly attacked by labor opposition when it was learned that he had rejected a short two or three week confinement advocated in mid-September by his scientific advisers.
But the UK, most punished country in Europe as more than 46,500 deaths confirmed by COVID-19Watch a second wave hit hard.
The Saturday exceeded one million positives: 1,011,660 cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the year.
In this context, the prime minister followed the example of his two closest neighbors —France and Ireland— which already have their populations reconfined.
Until Friday, his chancellor and number two in the executive, Dominic Raab, had insisted on maintaining a policy of local restrictions.
“We will do everything we can in a focused way“In the areas of greatest contagion, he told the BBC. “We are not going to adopt a single approach for all” that “would be worse,” he insisted.
“Disastrous” economic repercussions of the pandemic
The north of the country, around cities like Liverpool and Manchester, I was already under heavy restrictions, with the closure of bars and a ban on meeting with family and friends with whom one does not live.
But a study published Thursday by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori launched the alert on the rapid spread of the virus further south, which could quickly find itself at the same level.
Thus, Johnson was pushed by his advisers to stop now the triggering of infections, hoping to allow families to reunite at Christmas.
These measures only affect England, because each of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom decides its health policies.
The more than three million Welsh were already reconfined a week ago by their regional government for 17 days.
As pressure mounted side by side for Johnson to do the same, opposition from conservatives also mounted: “Don’t do it Boris!” The conservative Daily Telegraph wrote on the front page Thursday.
The economic consequences are particularly feared, after the IMF advanced this week a 10.4% fall in British GDP in 2020, worse than expected.
The repercussions will be “disastrous” in the hotel and restaurant industry, denounced on Twitter Kate Nicholls, CEO of UK Hospitality, asking for greater financial support from the government.
In the opinion of Stephen Griffin, professor at the University of Leeds School of Medicine, “this déjà vu (…) was totally avoidable” if the epidemic had been kept under control through an effective system of tests and traces.
This time “I hope that the time gained from the second lockdown is used correctly and the UK can finally emulate countries where the epidemic is controlled” such as South Korea or Australia, he added.
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