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Police arrested 104 anti-blockade protesters as hundreds of people marched through the streets of central London last night after stricter rules on the coronavirus went into effect in England, affecting 56 million people.
Officers urged protesters to go home as they took to the streets near Trafalgar Square, warning those who had gathered that they were violating coronavirus restrictions.
The protesters, very few of whom were wearing face covers, began walking down the Strand shortly after 6 pm, shouting “freedom” and “no more lockdowns”.
Followed by a large number of officers from the City of London forces and the Metropolitan Police, protesters were repeatedly asked to go home, and one officer yelled at a group: “You are breaking the law.”
The Met said in a statement that most of the arrests were for breaches of the new regulations and that the number of arrests was expected to increase as the operation continued overnight.
Nonessential pubs, restaurants and shops have closed their doors under the latest four-week shutdown in England and people have been told to stay home, but schools, colleges and nurseries remain open.
Today, a massive test pilot of the UK government’s “operation moonshot” begins in Liverpool and everyone who lives or works in the city will be encouraged to get tested even if they have no symptoms.
Around 2,000 military personnel are being mobilized to assist in the pilot, which will identify positive cases even in people without symptoms.
But it comes as the Guardian newspaper reported that a rapid coronavirus test at the heart of the strategy missed more than 50% of positive cases in a Greater Manchester driver.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted yesterday that testing and tracking are improving after recording a record low of contacts made in England, but acknowledged “frustrations” with the system and accepted that “it has not had as much impact as we would’ve liked”.
He also insisted that four weeks of lockdown should be enough to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, so that severe restrictions can be eased.
“The advice I have received suggests that four weeks is long enough for these measures to have a real impact,” he told a news conference in Downing Street.
“These rules will expire and on December 2 we plan to return to a tiered approach. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
“These are difficult times. While it pains me to have to ask so many once again to give up so much, I know we can get through this.”
Britain has recorded nearly 48,000 coronavirus-related deaths out of more than a million positive cases.
Simon Stevens, the head of the state National Health Service (NHS) in England, urged compliance, warning: “This second wave of Covid is real and serious.
“Today’s infection is the intensive care order book for fifteen days,” he added, noting that the total number of patients admitted to the hospital had soared from less than 500 in early September to more than 11,000.
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