Shops in England open after months in virus lockdown
LONDON: Non-essential shops across England opened their doors on Monday to welcome customers back after nearly three months of being in lockdown as part of a further easing up of the Coronavirus stay at home restrictions.
The retailers are required to ensure Covid-19-secure conditions within stores, including visible signs reminding people about hygiene and also ensuring a two-metre distance within the premises by limiting the numbers allowed indoors.
“People should shop, and shop with confidence,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the Monday morning reopening. UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak also encouraged shoppers to support the high streets kick back into business, reassuring people that the COVID-19 infection rate was within a range that allows for the reopening. “People need to have the confidence that it's safe... and I can give that assurance,” he said. Although essential retailers such as food shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, and banks have stayed open through the
lockdown, much of the high street, from bookshops to clothes outlets, have been closed since March 23. Under COVID19-secure measures already in place among the essential shops, the non-essential retailers are required to introduce plastic screens at the tills and floor markings to keep shoppers two metres apart. Other measures will include messages not to touch items unless customers intend to purchase them and decontaminating shopping baskets after each use. Most retailers will also have plenty of sanitiser on hand for customers. In most clothes shops, fitting rooms will be closed. Bookshops said they intend to put items in quarantine if browsed but not bought, while some jewellers are introducing ultraviolet boxes that can decontaminate items in minutes. There is also government funding being made available for councils to deploy marshalls on the High Street to provide help and advice for both shoppers and shops.
Stores are taking a region by region approach for the number of outlets they open up this week.
London's West End, which includes the shopping hub of Oxford Street, is expecting about 80 per cent fewer visitors when it reopens on Monday. A surge in online shopping during lockdown is expected to impact the footfall in the stores in the early weeks, even as the UK registered its lowest daily death toll of 36 over the weekend, to hit a total of 41,698.