England readies for lockdown into December.
All non- essential venues must close until early December
LONDON — Last- minute shoppers in England came out in force Wednesday and thirsty drinkers planned their final freshly poured pints in a pub for the next month as Britain prepared to join large swaths of Europe in a coronavirus lockdown designed to save its health care system from being overwhelmed.
All non- essential venues — which in England includes pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, golf courses, gyms, swimming pools, entertainment places and stores selling items like books, clothing and sneakers — must close Thursday until at least Dec. 2. That order came after a sudden change of course last weekend by Britain’s government, which had for weeks been advocating a targeted regional response to the pandemic instead of another national lockdown.
Two changes from the U. K.’ s spring lockdown is that this time schools and universities in England are remaining open, as are construction sites and factories.
With time running out to get things sorted out before the lockdown takes effect, all types of businesses extended their hours and reported brisk customer traffic, sometimes on an unprecedented scale.
London hairdresser Richard Ward said his team of around 100 will have worked through 1,400 customers in the three working days since the British government announced the England- wide lockdown, but weekly business was still down around 25% on an annual basis as a result of coronavirus restrictions already in place.
“The staff are working back to back, all days off have been canceled, all holidays have been canceled,” Ward said. “When you have high overheads like we have here, it’s a numbers game, and you have to take a lot of money in order to pay all these people and pay all the overheads.”
Fears about a devastating economic impact of the monthlong shutdown prompted some lawmakers from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party to vote against approving the lockdown in Parliament on Wednesday. Still, Johnson easily won the vote as most opposition lawmakers backed the move.
England’s lockdown follows similar restrictions elsewhere in the U. K., which recorded another 492 COVID- 19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest daily number since May. Overall, the U. K. has Europe’s highest official virus- related death toll: 47,742.
‘ Red- zone’ rules in Italy
In Italy, four regions are being put under “red- zone” lockdown, with severe limits imposed on the circumstances under which people can leave home, Premier Giuseppe Conte announced on Wednesday night, as the country battles a coronavirus surge.
What he called “very stringent” restrictions begin on Friday for Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta in the north, and for Calabria, which forms the southern toe of the Italian peninsula.
Lasting at least two weeks, it will involve some 16.5 million of Italy’s 60 million residents and include the country’s financial capital, Milan.
Barring very few exceptions, no one will be able to leave or enter the “red zone” regions. People there must stay home, except to go to work or shop for essentials. They can also exercise near their homes and while wearing masks.