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LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England to return to a national lockdown after the UK surpassed the one million Covid-19 milestone and a second wave of infections threatened to overwhelm the health service.
The UK, which has the highest official death toll in Europe from Covid-19, is dealing with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned that the “worst case” scenario of 80,000 deaths could be exceeded.
Johnson, at a hastily convened press conference in Downing Street after news of a lockdown leaked to local media, said that the month-long lockdown in England would begin after midnight Thursday morning and would last until December 2nd.
In some of the most onerous restrictions in Britain’s peacetime history, people will only be allowed to leave home for specific reasons such as education, work, exercise, buying essentials and medicine, or caring for the vulnerable.
“We must act now,” said Johnson, flanked by his chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and his chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance.
“Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country in the thousands a day.”
The government will reactivate its coronavirus emergency wage subsidy scheme to ensure that workers who are temporarily laid off during a new lockdown across England receive 80% of their pay, he said.
Essential stores, schools and universities will remain open, Johnson said, and as elite sports continue, adult and children’s amateur sports will be asked to stop.
Pubs and restaurants will be closed for takeout, and international travel abroad will be discouraged, except for work. All non-essential retailers will be closed.
Places of worship will remain open for private prayer, although funerals will be limited to close family members only.
Johnson’s tightening of restrictions came after scientists warned that the outbreak was headed in the wrong direction and that steps were needed to stop the spread of the virus if families had any hope of reuniting at Christmas.
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The measures align England with France and Germany by imposing nationwide restrictions almost as severe as those that led the world economy this year into its deepest recession in generations.
Johnson was criticized by political opponents for moving too slowly toward the first national lockdown, which ran from March 23 to July 4. He fell ill with Covid in late March and was hospitalized in early April.
A national lockdown represents a dramatic policy shift for the prime minister, who has been saying for months that it won’t be necessary.
Two weeks ago he defended his strategy from a patchwork of local restrictions, saying he wanted to avoid the “misery of a national shutdown.”
Currently, areas of England are subject to one of three levels of coronavirus restrictions.
“I’m optimistic that this will feel very different and better for the spring,” Johnson said, adding that there was realistic hope for a vaccine in the first quarter of next year.
When asked by reporters why it took so long to impose a national lockdown, Johnson said it was an ongoing struggle to balance risk to life and risk to livelihoods.
“We have to keep an eye on the scars and long-term economic impact of the measures,” Johnson said. His medical adviser Whitty said that without the strictest measures, the National Health Service could be overwhelmed.
Keir Starmer, the opposition Labor leader, who called for the shutdown two weeks ago, said the delay in introducing the restrictions will come “at economic and human cost.”
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the proposals on Wednesday.
The new lockdown will put more pressure on Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England to increase their already huge support for the UK economy, the sixth largest in the world. The economy slumped a record 20% in the spring.
So far, the UK has reported 46,555 deaths from Covid-19, defined as those who die within 28 days of a positive test. A broader measure of those with Covid-19 on their death certificates puts the number of victims at 58,925.
The UK has the fifth-highest official death toll in the world, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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