Covid chaos in UK ahead of Freedom Day
PM JOHNSON AND CHANCELLOR START SELF-ISOLATION AFTER ABRUPT U-TURN
TThe initial go-ahead for the PM to work from his office had provoked uproar on social media, after millions of schoolchildren and workers were forced to stay home under the UK’s tracing rules.
he UK government was thrown into turmoil yesterday by its own rules on Covid self-isolation just as it controversially prepares to ditch pandemic curbs in England.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and finance minister Rishi Sunak will be working remotely in the week ahead after they came into contact with a person infected with Covid, Downing Street said yesterday. Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed on Saturday he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was selfisolating for 10 days. He had a “lengthy” meeting with Johnson on Friday.
Confusion, contradiction
Javid also appeared alongside ministers in parliament last week, and one government source told The Telegraph : “I don’t see how half the cabinet doesn’t end up in isolation by the end of the week.”
Initially, a Downing Street spokesperson said both Johnson and Sunak were taking part in a government pilot that enables them to continue working from their offices, while selfisolating outside of work.
Yet in an update after a storm of anger over the announcement, the spokesperson reversed position and said neither official was participating in the pilot, but would conduct business remotely.
Johnson will remain at the prime minister’s country retreat at Chequers northwest of London. The carve-out for the special pilot had provoked uproar among social media users and opposition politicians, after millions of schoolchildren and workers were forced to stay home under the tracing rules.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “This government treats the public with contempt and thinks they are above the law and the rules don’t apply to them.” The development came just as Johnson’s government prepares to ditch most pandemic restrictions in England under the so-called Freedom Day today, despite daily infection rates topping 50,000 — behind only Indonesia and Brazil.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his top finance official, Rishi Sunak, went into self-isolation yesterday, only hours after Downing Street said they would avoid a quarantine, after contact with a Cabinet minister who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The abrupt reversal by Johnson and Sunak, Britain’s top two government officials, came after their plans to enter a special programme that would have allowed them to keep working at the office set off a swift and ferocious backlash from critics, who accused them of a double standard.
Critics slam government
Johnson and Sunak were notified, or “pinged,” by the National Health Service after face-to-face meetings with the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who said Saturday that he had mild symptoms of Covid-19. They had initially planned to avoid the normal requirement to isolate themselves by taking part in an NHS pilot programme that would have subjected them to daily tests.
Critics pointed out that hundreds of thousands of ordinary Britons similarly pinged by the health service had been forced to quarantine for 10 days, suggesting that the program was a way for the elite to avoid that burden.
‘Busted again’
“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have been busted yet again for thinking the rules that we are all following don’t apply to them,” the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, said in a statement.
“At a time when we need to maintain confidence in selfisolation, parents, workers and businesses will be wondering what on earth is going on in Downing Street,” Starmer added.
After Javid’s announcement, the notification of Johnson and Sunak did not come as a surprise, and neither has reported having any Covid symptoms.
But their chaotic response, on the eve of the government’s plans to lift almost all virus-related restrictions, was the latest in a skein of U-turns dating to the beginning of the pandemic. The episode illustrates the widening effects of the health service’s test-and-trace app, which has notified more than 500,000 people. The cascade of isolations has begun to cause staff shortages in pubs, restaurants and other workplaces.
A major line of the London Underground, the Metropolitan, was closed as multiple staff members were pinged by the app.