Follow rules to avoid second national lockdown, warns Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson raised the threat of a new national lockdown as he paused new freedoms due this weekend amid fears any further reopening of the economy could trigger a full-blown resurgence of the coronavirus.
The surprise move came with a warning from Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, that the country now appears to be “at the outer edge” of how far society can safely reopen in the age of the pandemic
“If we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things,” he said. “The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong.”
His stark assessment comes just weeks before schools across England are due to reopen, raising questions about what else might have to be restricted to allow them to do so.
The prime minister and Whitty set out their concerns at the end of a turbulent week in which holidaymakers returning from abroad, those suffering from symptoms of the virus, and swathes of northern England have faced new curbs and restrictions.
The prime minister told a hastily arranged Downing Street press conference that it was “now time to squeeze the brake pedal” to stop any further flare-ups on the virus.
He said he was pausing the reopening of leisure businesses, such as casinos and bowling alleys, and preventing beauty salons resuming closeup treatments, for at least two weeks.
Johnson said rules on face coverings would also be extended from 8 August, meaning people would be obliged to wear them in indoor venues such as museums, galleries and cinemas, and that there would be greater police enforcement of mask-wearing.
Pilot sports events would be cancelled from 1 August and the decision to allow wedding receptions to have up to 30 guests from this weekend was also being reversed, he said.
However, guidance that employers should allow more staff to begin working from offices again will still be in place from Saturday, part of a government push to get the daytime commuter economy moving again.
Shielding advice for up to 2.2 million people, who were told to avoid leaving their homes from March, would also be lifted as planned.
Johnson’s comments were in notable contrast to his press conference exactly two weeks earlier, where he outlined a gradual series of reopening measures towards what he billed as a “more significant return to normality” by Christmas.
Speaking on Friday, the PM stressed that he had said the country should “hope for the best but plan for the worst”, and that it was vital people followed distancing measures and cooperate with the test and trace system.
He said: “Unless people follow the rules and behave safely, we may need to go further.”
“This is how we will avoid a return to full national lockdown,” he added.
“At this stage, we are not changing the rules on social contact nationally. I don’t want to tell people to spend less time with their friends. But unless people follow the rules and behave safely, we may need to go further.”
Appearing alongside the prime minister, Whitty said that as long as the coronavirus was in the community, it was unlikely the economy and society could open up much further.
“If we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things. And these will be difficult trade-offs, some of which will be decisions for government and some of which are for all of us as citizens to do. But we have to be realistic about this.”
This raises the prospect of new lockdown measures being needed to compensate for schools fully reopening after the summer break. Whitty stressed that this should not be changed, calling it “an absolute priority for the welfare of children”.
The government acted after new Office for National Statistics data showed infection levels in England were at about 4,200 new cases per day as of 23 July, the highest number since mid-May and, at 31%, the highest week-on-week percentage increase in the same period.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said that while the government had been too slow to react to the initial coronavirus outbreak, the party understood Johnson’s decisions.
“Two weeks ago, Boris Johnson was suggesting it could all be over by Christmas and I think many people thought there would be a kind of lull in this virus across the summer,” he told Times Radio.
“Actually what we’re seeing is an increase in infection rates. We’re obviously seeing worrying outbreaks across Europe and it is a reminder that this virus hasn’t gone away.”
Answering questions at the press conference, Johnson declined to condemn one of his MPs, Craig Whittaker, who said the “vast majority” of people breaching coronavirus lockdown rules were from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, particularly Muslim backgrounds.
Labour called the comments “overt racism”. But Johnson declined to distance himself from them, saying only that it was “up to the whole country to get this right”.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon urged young people to show much greater caution going to bars and social events after a rise in Covid-19 infections, including 30 new confirmed cases into Friday.
The first minister said about half of all the new cases over the last week involved people in their 20s and 30s, including young people in a new cluster of 13 cases in the Port Glasgow area, which has involved staff at a pharmacy and an Amazon warehouse.
Included in the 30 new cases – the largest daily increase in eight weeks – were 12 infections in care homes. While there were no new deaths in hospital in the past 24 hours, the number of people in intensive care rose from two to four.
She urged people to act far more cautiously meeting other people, to consider strictly limiting their socialising and to observe distancing rules.
“Every single time one of us breaches one of those rules, we give this virus an opportunity to jump from us to someone else,” she said at a hastily-arranged briefing. “I would urge everyone in their 20s and 30s not to be complacent.”