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This measure, which puts an end to the strategy of local restrictions that the British Conservative Government had opted for, will mean the forced closure of non-essential shops and businesses, as well as all hospitality, although schools and universities will remain open.
Johnson’s announcement comes on the same day that the United Kingdom has announced that it has surpassed one million laboratory confirmed cases since the pandemic broke out, with 21,915 new positives in the last 24 hours bringing the total to 1,011,660.
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The prime minister justified the measure with the argument that if the closure does not take place now, the British public health system, NHS, could collapse, already under strong pressure due to the increase in cases in the last hours.
“Non-essential businesses and entertainment venues will close, and pubs and restaurants will have to close except to serve food at home,” Johnson said, before noting that workplaces for people who cannot work from home, such as construction, yes they will remain open.
It will not be, he explained, a confinement as restrictive as that of last spring, but it will imply that citizens are not allowed to leave their homes other than for reasons of education, work or essential purchases.
One hour a day of exercise and contact with a single person from another home will also be allowed. All this with the aim, he added, that “with these measures, we are able to allow families to meet up on the next Christmas holidays.”
The head of the Government added that the job preservation program, which was to expire this Saturday, will be extended for a month, until December.
The plan will be sent to Parliament next Monday, for a vote on Wednesday and its entry into force at midnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
In fact, the prime minister was forced to advance an announcement he planned to make Monday in an appearance before the House of Commons, due to the leak of his plans late on Friday.
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After the end of this new confinement, “we will try to relax the restrictions, returning to the system by local and regional levels, according to the latest data and trends,” he added.
Although teachers unions have already shown their differences with the opening of schools, Johnson insisted that “school is the best place for children, we cannot let the virus damage their future.”
The prime minister wanted to give reasons for hope when declaring “optimistic” about the evolution of the pandemic for spring, since now there is the prospect of “using millions of rapid and reliable tests”.
For this reason, in the coming days the authorities will deploy a “massive expansion” of covid-19 tests.
In the same appearance before the media, the Government’s main medical adviser, Chris Whitty, said that there are now several hospitals in England with more patients admitted for covid in them than during the peak of last spring.
If the figures continue to grow at this rate, “throughout the winter there is a potential risk that deaths will be double, or more, than in spring,” said Patrick Vallance, chief of the Executive’s scientific advisers. .
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