£30 FINE IF YOU

But parents left asking: Can I take more than one child with me when I go out?

THE coronavirus lockdown will see strict limits on when people can leave their house and a ban on gatherings of more than two people.

Police will be able to fine people £30 if they ignore the rules. These on-the-spot fines will be ‘ramped up’ if there is widespread flouting.

You will be allowed to leave your home for four very limited reasons:

Shopping for basics, as infrequently as possible;

Exercise, such as running, walking or cycling, once a day – alone or with those you live with;

Travelling to or from work where it is impossible to work from home;

To care for a vulnerable person or attend an urgent medical appointment.

All non-essential shops, libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms in parks will be closed as part of the measures.

The dramatic new restrictions come after weekend scenes of people meeting for picnics, walking on beaches and shopping in street markets as if no health crisis were happening.

Runners and cyclists were seen gathering together in places such as London’s Richmond Park in direct contravention of all Government advice.

Downing Street said the draconian measures were necessary because too many people were flouting advice aimed at slowing the spread of the disease. No10 was shocked into stepping up controls after analysing data from the weekend.

The models for containing coronavirus require social contact to fall by 75 per cent to be effective. But high street footfall was down by only 30 per cent – and the number visiting parks was triple that seen on a normal spring weekend.

The rules will create a huge challenge for the police and it is not clear exactly how they will be enforced.

Guidance published last night makes it clear that key workers, or parents with vulnerable children, will be able to take their children to school. And parents can take their children to the shops if there is no option to leave them at home.

‘Even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are two metres apart from anyone outside of your household,’ the guidance said. The announcement will cause concern for families with more than one child.

Many parents will, for instance, ask whether they will only be able to take one child with them when they go out.

There are also questions over how people will prove they are caring for someone, or if they absolutely cannot work from home. And there is little clarity on how the police will be able to force people to pay fines if they are not carrying any money, or make people return to their homes if they refuse.

A Government source said the new emergency measures represented a ‘massive hardening of the stay-at-home message’ with rules ‘much closer to a French-style situation’.

‘We are flipping the message round. Until now, we have been telling people these are the circumstances where you should stay at home.

‘Now we are saying you should stay at home unless you have a very good reason to go out, and we are setting out what those circumstances are.’

It follows growing pressure on Boris Johnson to announce a full lockdown rather than simply urging people to be sensible. In a Commons debate, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised those people going to parks and beaches ‘as if nothing has changed’.

The Tory MP, chairman of the health committee, said: ‘We must move to lockdown rules now that ban non-essential travel. It’s time not just to ask people to do social distancing but enforce social distancing.’

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘Other countries across the world have taken further far-reaching social distancing measures. We now call on the Government to move to enforced social distancing and greater social protection as a matter of urgency.’

Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour deputy leadership candidate and practising doctor, had warned that Mr Johnson’s ‘relaxed’ approach to coronavirus could cost lives.

She told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘If we look at the fact that we are two weeks behind Italy, we are headed for a disaster if people do not heed the social distancing measures.’