Lock it down
LEICESTER is expected by experts to be the first of many local lockdowns so Ministers must get this right.
Complaints about confusion in an East Midlands city of more than 300,000 are not encouraging. Communicating clearly what people should and should not do is vital.
Ahead of England’s Super Saturday this weekend when much reopens, the need to keep our physical distance must be reinforced.
Or the virus will spread rapidly again and Leicester won’t be alone.
Figures have now shown the UK economy shrank 2.2% between January and March, the joint largest fall since 1979.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns the world is set to take a £9.6 trillion Covid-19 hit, and Britain’s economy will plunge by 10.2% in 2020.
Some experts say we should expect levels of unemployment of three million or more, while the Centre for Retail Research predicts as many as 20,000 shops could close this year.
Furloughed workers fear redundancy once employers need to start paying some of their wages in August.
We’ve all had to find new ways to communicate. Millions are now familiar with video conferencing app Zoom, which by the end of April had over 300 million daily meeting participants.
Older people have become tech-savvy, with 75% in parts of the UK regularly using
Zoom, WhatsApp and FaceTime. We also got the chance to meet neighbours.
However, a study found people who believed in conspiracy theories were more likely to get Covid-19 information from Facebook or YouTube.
Unable to go out, we’ve found new ways to amuse ourselves.
Flour production increased tenfold to meet the rise in home baking and by April there were over 2.7million photos tagged “sourdough” on Instagram.
We’ve also had time to start tedious household jobs and the three-hour long queue outside Ikea and B&Q showed just how much DIY we had to do.
We’ve also made the most of home comforts, with slipper sales doubling in some stores and TV viewing up by 51%.
There have been countless Zoom quizzes and the sale of alcohol at supermarkets soared.
We have lived in lockdown for 100 days, life before March 24 a distant memory.
“Normal” now means accepting that a trip to the shops means standing, face hidden under a mask, in a sociallydistanced queue, or working from home, while homeschooling the kids, or keeping in touch with colleagues and lovedones on Zoom calls.
Things we took for granted – the night out at the pub, trip to the cinema, mini-break – belong in the past. Even our vocabulary has changed to include shielding,
MESSAGE FOR YOU Johnson at briefing self-isolation, the R number and lockdown. The Oxford English Dictionary added 20 coronavirus words, including “elbow bump”, in April. Here are some other ways the lockdown has changed Britain in the past 100 days.
The daily press briefing has meant we have seen more of the Government than ever.
A record 27 million of us were initially glued to the occasion – although that later reduced to two million.
Meanwhile, confidence in Boris Johnson and the Tories has also shrunk.
At the start of lockdown, three in four Brits agreed with the Government’s handling of the pandemic. A recent YouGov poll shows the British government has the lowest domestic approval rating in the world – alongside Mexico – for its handling of Covid-19.
The PM’s approval ratings sit at just 39% and have not been helped by the revelation his top aide Dominic Cummings flouted lockdown rules.
An Opinium poll showed 37% of voters think Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would be better at leading the country, compared to 35% for Mr Johnson.