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The government has warned of “tougher measures” if people do not follow the latest coronavirus restrictions.
In a television broadcast Tuesday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “we must reserve the right to go further” if cases continue to increase.
New rules were announced across the UK on Tuesday, and Johnson warned they could last up to six months.
In England, office workers are told to return to work from home and the rules on how to cover their faces have been expanded.
Pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues will need to close at 22:00 BST, and the number of people allowed at weddings has been cut in half.
In the meantime, the fines for breaking the rules will also increase to £ 200 on the first offense.
Hospitality venues will also have to close early in Scotland and Wales, but Scotland has gone further, banning people from visiting other people’s homes. Northern Ireland has also banned households from mixing indoors.
The government’s top medical adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, is understood to believe it is inevitable that England will have to follow Scotland’s latest move, according to the Times.
Conservative MPs also hope that limits on home visits are “the next step,” according to Nicholas Watt, political editor of the BBC’s Newsnight.
“They don’t like it, but they could probably live with it,” he said, adding that if the government went further with restrictions on the hospitality sector “that would really create insurrection in the Tory banks.”
The prime minister’s warning comes six months after the UK’s coronavirus lockdown, first announced on March 23, which saw strict restrictions on life to address the spread of the virus.
People were told to only leave home for one of four reasons, including shopping for food and medicine, exercise, medical needs, and travel to and from work “when absolutely necessary.”
‘Too many infractions’
In his prerecorded speech from Downing Street, Johnson said he was “spiritually reluctant” to infringe on people’s freedoms, “but unless we take action, the risk is that we will have to take tougher action later, when the deaths are over. happened. mounted “.
He added that although the vast majority have complied with the measures so far, “there have been too many breaches.”
Since then, former Labor Home Secretary Alan Johnson has criticized the prime minister for suggesting that the public is to blame for the surge in cases.
“The public has been extremely submissive and obedient,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight.
“But the message has not always been clear and it is absurd for the prime minister to suggest in his speech that the problem here is somehow the public.”
Meanwhile, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for more “unifying messages” from the four nations of the UK.
Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight, he said there had been “problems” with the messages during the pandemic, highlighting “different messages coming from the local and national government and different messages from decentralized administrations and the administration in London.”
“Whenever possible, it is much better to stick together, because the simplicity of the messaging is one of the things that will make the biggest difference in terms of compliance with the rules,” he said.
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The delegate nations have their own powers over coronavirus restrictions, and their leaders made separately televised speeches Tuesday night.
Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the nation had to choose its priorities, adding that staying out of other people’s homes provides “the best chance of regaining control of Covid.”
Meanwhile, Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford urged people not to let the virus “take over our lives again”, and Northern Ireland Prime Minister Arlene Foster said stricter restrictions should act as a “wake-up call” that “we’re not out of the woods.”
A televised speech from the prime minister is not as rare as it used to be, but it is still a great moment.
The gravity of the situation is such that, according to Boris Johnson’s argument, a renewed national effort is required to get the virus back under control.
Behind the echoes of wartime rhetoric and Johnsonian linguistic flourishes was a simple message; stay with him for six months and we’ll get through it.
But, as he acknowledged, there are those who say he is making the wrong decisions and that the public’s patience for new restrictions may not be what it had six months ago.
There was optimism that better days were ahead, but a vaccine and massive tests were “hopes and dreams,” not reality, not now.
The Scottish Prime Minister had gone further, so comparisons will be inevitable; What tactics will work?
As England and the UK put themselves to the test again, so are the prime minister and the government’s leadership and its strategy.
The prime minister told MPs on Tuesday that the new rules were “carefully evaluated” to achieve the maximum reduction in the R-number, which measures how quickly the virus spreads, while causing “the least damage to lives. and livelihoods “.
The latest estimate of R for the whole of the UK is between 1.1 and 1.4.
And the number of cases in the UK rose by 4,926 on Tuesday, government figures showed, with deaths increasing by 37.
What are the new rules?
In England:
- Office workers told to go back to work from home if possible
- Penalties for not wearing a mask or gathering in groups of more than six increase to £ 200 on the first offense
- Starting Thursday, September 24, all pubs, bars and restaurants will be restricted to table service only. Conclusions can continue
- Also starting on Thursday, hospitality venues must close at 10pm, which means closing at that time, not taking last orders (in Scotland the same curfew rule goes into effect on Friday)
- Face coverings should be used by all taxi passengers from Wednesday
- Retail staff and customers in indoor hospitality venues will also be required to wear masks starting Thursday, except when seated at a table eating or drinking.
- Starting Monday, September 28, only 15 people will be able to attend weddings and civil societies, in groups of six. Funerals can still take place with up to 30 people
- Also as of September 28, you can only play adult Indoor sports in groups of less than six
- The planned return of spectators to the sports facilities will not be anticipated as of October 1
In Scotland:
- Counseling across Scotland do not visit other homes in the interior starting Wednesday, September 23. This will become law as of Friday.
- There will be exceptions for those who live alone or alone with children, forming extended households. The rules will also not apply to non-living couples, merchants, or the provision of informal child care services such as grandparents.
- From Friday, pubs and restaurants will have to close at 22:00
- The prime minister urged the people do not book trips abroad for the October school holidays
In Wales:
- Pubs, cafes and restaurants in Wales will have to close at 22:00 starting Thursday, and sales of alcohol outside of licenses and supermarkets will stop after that time as well
- Pubs should also provide table service only
In Northern Ireland:
- From now on, people he can’t meet anyone he doesn’t live with inside your house
- There are only limited exceptions.
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