UK’s Johnson said this is “not the time, simply, to end the lockdown this week,” but that it was appropriate to make some changes.
“We must continue to control the virus and save lives,” the prime minister said from an office at 10 Downing Street. “And yet we must also recognize that this campaign against the virus has come at colossal cost to our way of life.”
He said people who cannot work from home, such as those in construction or manufacturing, “should be actively encouraged to go to work” starting this week. However, he said they should not commute by public transportation and adhere to social distancing guidelines. The changes permit individuals to sit with a friend in a park provided they keep 2 meters apart, something prohibited during the lockdown. In theory, that means people can meet their mother or father, but not both. No details were provided on when people can meet with friends and family again.The governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, extended their lockdowns prior to Johnson’s speech and eased restrictions less than the steps the prime minister announced for England.
Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said he was worried about the four nations “pulling in different directions” and that Johnson failed to provide the necessary “clarity and consensus.”Professor Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said it “will just be confusing, be open to misinterpretation and likely to increase risky behavior.
“Throughout this period of the next two months, we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity,” he said. “We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health, and I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big ifs.”
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