Covid 19 coronavirus: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces new restrictions

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a series of coronavirus restrictions that are expected to last six months in a government pushback to combat a second wave of the virus.

Johnson told the House of Commons that the country had reached a “dangerous tipping point” in the trajectory of Covid-19 with a total of virus cases doubling every seven to 20 days.

“This is the moment we must act,” he said, “acting on the principle that one stitch in time saves nine.”

“We must take steps to suppress the disease.”

The new restrictions mean that people will once again be encouraged to work from home, pubs, restaurants and bars will close at 10 p.m., retail and hospitality staff must wear face covers, and a “rule of six “to include team sports.

Weddings will also be restricted to a maximum of 15 guests with 30 for funerals, and plans to pilot live sporting events will be scrapped.

Fines of up to £ 10,000 (NZ $ 19,200) will be introduced for those who fail to isolate themselves, while the fine for not wearing a mask will double to £ 200 (NZ $ 384).

Johnson also warned that if restrictions do not work to reduce virus cases, greater measures would be introduced.

“If all of our actions fail to bring the R below 1, then we reserve the right to deploy greater firepower with significantly greater restrictions,” he said.

“Unless we make tangible progress, we should assume that the restrictions should remain in place for maybe six months.

“If we don’t act together now … we will jeopardize our own future.”

The warning comes after England’s chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser on Monday released a series of figures showing that cases could rise to 50,000 a day with 200 deaths within weeks if the current trend continues unabated.

They said the UK was following a pattern seen in France and Spain in which young people aged 20-29 saw growth rates of the virus first, followed by its transmission to older people, prompting an increase in hospital admissions. and deaths.

The UK has already suffered the highest death toll in Europe from the pandemic, with nearly 42,000 deaths recorded so far.

On Monday it registered the highest number of cases in 19 weeks with 4,422 and the alert level increased from three to four, indicating that transmission rates were now “high or rising exponentially.”

British Prime Minister Johnson has met with the leaders of the delegate nations, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, however each sets its own health policy and England’s rules do not apply in those nations.

The new lockdown measures come just 11 weeks after pubs reopened on a “Super Saturday” on July 4, following a three-month lockdown that caused schools and businesses to close to overcome a rampant wave of coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

Since then, restrictions have been drastically relaxed with people packing on cheap flights to go on summer vacations in Europe, restaurants adopting a government-funded “Eat Out to Help” scheme with enthusiasm, and life getting back to normal. normal appearance for many, although with face masks, QR codes and hand sanitizer at all times.

Less than a month ago, the government urged people to return to their offices, saying that if they could go to work they should do so to get the economy back on track.

Now, the return to restrictions has sparked a wave of criticism over whether the relaxation measures were taken too early, with allegations of hypocrisy against Johnson after he refused to remove a key adviser who violated the blocking rules to visit. relatives in the north of the country.

Oxford University researcher Toby Phillips even raised the possibility that there is a “weak correlation” between the Eat Out scheme, which offered discounts to diners from Monday to Wednesday in August, and the subsequent increase in cases.

“The Eat Out plan was a creative way to raise money for struggling hotel companies, and that is no small thing. But the party comes with a hangover,” he wrote in The Conversation.

“At the same time the scheme was up and running, the UK started to see a spike in Covid-19 cases. This exceeded testing capacity and prompted some regions to re-impose restrictions.

“It is impossible to know what caused this: people were also returning from summer holidays and spending more time with friends. In fact, transmission rates were already increasing in early August, before there could be any effect from the Eat Out program. “.

“But the rapid acceleration in the proportion of positive cases detected in early September is consistent with cases where the infection occurred in mid-August. The effect of a £ 10 discount at the pub is certainly worth considering. And the effect of concentrating people who went out only three days a week. “

The current increase in cases is compounded by the start of a new school year and a new college term that has led to an increase in demand for virus testing. The government system has been struggling to cope with the increase and has been forced to send swabs to labs across Europe for processing, while people are being told to travel miles from home to get tested for the disease. .

On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, generally a staunch Johnson supporter, said the “mosh pit” approach to living with the virus in the UK was “risky”.

“That will put everyone at risk,” he told Chris Kenny on Sky News.

“And we are seeing that again in the UK and in many other places. And that is a terrible and wicked problem that they have to deal with now.”

Morrison said that following the safe Covid behaviors and getting tested was “incredibly important.”

“Because if we relax on that, we’ll find ourselves back where most of the developed world is in the Northern Hemisphere right now.”

New UK restrictions have raised concerns that early pub closures could simply force people into homes where the virus could spread even more easily.

But Jennifer Cole, a biological anthropologist at Royal Holloway University, rejected suggestions that the early closing time would make little difference.

“We know that the biggest influence on people’s risk behavior is alcohol. The more drunk you are, the less inhibited and less risk averse you are,” he said.

“Closing bars and restaurants at 10 pm just keeps more people sober” and they are more likely to take preventive measures, such as covering their faces on public transportation, he added.

Julian Tang, a respiratory sciences specialist at the University of Leicester, said the move may seem “soft” but that it is preferable to another national lockdown, if everyone complies.