London: Boris Johnson tightened the U.K.’s coronavirus restrictions and warned Britons the new rules are likely to be in place for six months, as the government tries to stamp out a resurgence of the disease.
The prime minister urged office workers to stay at home where possible and announced that restaurants and bars must close earlier each night from Sept. 24.
Tougher enforcement action will also follow, with higher fines for people failing to wear face coverings, which are already required on public transport and will become mandatory for passengers in taxis and workers in the hospitality and retail sectors.
“This is the moment when we must act,” Johnson told Parliament on Tuesday. “We reserve the right to deploy greater firepower with significantly greater restrictions. I fervently want to avoid taking this step.”
The measures, which are being replicated across the U.K., are a reversal of efforts to re-open the economy after the first national lockdown shuttered social and commercial activity in March, sparking the country’s deepest recession in more than 100 years.
They also illustrate the difficulty facing the government as it tries to balance the need to protect the economy and stamping down on a pandemic that’s killed more people in Britain than any other European nation. Johnson’s Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance warned on Monday that without action, the U.K. is on track to register 50,000 new Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October.
Stitch in time
Johnson insisted his plan was not a return to the full national lockdown of March, as the majority of the economy will remain open. “We are acting on the principle that a stitch in time saves nine,” he said.
By imposing restrictions now, the government can “shelter the economy from the far sterner and more costly measures that would inevitably become necessary later on,” Johnson said. He added that the public should assume the restrictions will be in place for “perhaps six months.” The timeframe will be politically difficult for the premier, who has previously said he hoped some form of normality would be possible for the Christmas holiday period.
Under the new rules, bars and restaurants will be ordered to close at 10 p.m. from Thursday with all transactions restricted to table service. Plans to allow business events to resume from Oct. 1 and crowds to return to live sporting venues will be put on hold.
The penalty for failing to wear a mask when required will double to 200 pounds, Johnson said, promising to provide the police and local authorities with “the extra funding they need” to enforce measures, and providing the option for them to “draw on military support where required to free up the police.”
With immediate effect, the government’s message is changing to encourage more people in England to work from home, where possible. This applies especially to office workers, where individuals and their employers agree it is possible to work at home effectively, officials said.
Schools and medical centers will remain open and workers providing essential services will still be encouraged to go to their workplaces.
Johnson’s announcement is a clear change in tack in the government’s approach. Ministers have spent the past two months trying to persuade Britons to return to their workplaces to revive deserted city centers where sandwich shops and other hospitality businesses are struggling to survive. The government also subsidized restaurant meals throughout August in an effort to boost the industry and restore Britons to pre-Covid habits. -Bloomberg
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