Six in 10 only leaving home ‘for basics’

ALMOST six in 10 adults in Britain say they are staying at home and only leaving for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical needs, figures show.

Some 57% of adults said they had only left home for these basic needs - less than during the first national lockdown, when 81% said they had obeyed these stay at home measures, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. But it represents a “significant increase” compared with mid-November, when 43% said they had only left home for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical needs.

For the current and November lockdowns, people have also been able to leave home for additional reasons, including to meet their support or childcare bubble and attend education or childcare. Throughout the pandemic people have been allowed to leave home to avoid risk of harm, such as domestic abuse. The winter restrictions included a four-week lockdown in November for England, a three-week firebreak in Wales from October 23 and protection levels in place in Scotland. From early January all three nations have been in lockdown.