Britain to live under new COVID-19 restrictions

Prime minister urges Britons to once again work at home

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday that Britain has reached a “perilous turning point” in the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced new curfews on pubs and restaurants in England and encouraged remote working — restrictions that could remain in place for six months.

Johnson outlined new constraints aimed at reversing a spike in coronavirus cases. Starting Thursday, pubs and restaurants will offer table service only and have to close by 10 p.m. Johnson also said that if people can work from home, they should — an about-face from a previous push by the government for people to return to their workplaces and help revive city centers.

Masks will be mandatory for retail workers, taxi drivers and bar and restaurant staffs, as well as customers when they are not seated at a table, the prime minister said.

The measures were more modest than many that reportedly had been under discussion, including a two-week lockdown.

Johnson said the restrictions could remain in effect for “perhaps six months.”

Speaking in Parliament, he said that “as in Spain and France and many other countries, we have reached a perilous turning point.” The number of coronavirus cases in Britain has nearly quadrupled over the past month, he said.

The government also paused plans to allow spectators to return to major sporting events and halved the number of guests allowed at weddings to 15.

“Now is the time for us all to summon the discipline and the resolve and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through,” Johnson said in a televised address to the nation — his third such speech during the pandemic. He also warned that restrictions may go further if they are ignored.

The new measures apply only to England. The semiautonomous governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own rules.

On Monday, the government’s top scientists warned that COVID-19 cases could spike to 50,000 per day by mid-October if the current trend continues.