Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work on Monday to the biggest dilemma of his premiership: how to lift the coronavirus lockdown that is destroying swathes of the British economy without triggering a deadly second wave of the outbreak.
Johnson, 55, is back in Downing Street almost a month to the day since he was tested positive for Covid-19 which incapacitated the prime minister and threatened his life at the peak of the coronavirus crisis.
His inbox is full to bursting. His government, his party and his scientific advisers are divided over how and when the world's fifth largest economy should start to get back to work, albeit in a limited form.
At the start of the outbreak, Johnson initially resisted imposing a draconian lockdown but then changed course when projections showed that a quarter of a million people could die in the UK.
Since the lockdown was imposed on March 23, his government has faced criticism from opposition parties and some doctors for the UK's limited testing capabilities and the lack protective equipment for some frontline health workers.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who has replaced veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, urged Johnson to set out when and how an economic and social lockdown might be eased — as did some Conservative Party donors.
“Simply acting as if this discussion is not happening is not credible,” Starmer wrote in an open letter to Johnson.
He said the government had been too slow to impose the lockdown, to expand testing and to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospital and care home staff.
Johnson is expected to announce plans for how the lockdown could be eased as early as this week, the Daily Telegraph reported. — Reuters
Back at work, British PM faces lockdown Catch-22
Image: AFP/ DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work on Monday to the biggest dilemma of his premiership: how to lift the coronavirus lockdown that is destroying swathes of the British economy without triggering a deadly second wave of the outbreak.
Johnson, 55, is back in Downing Street almost a month to the day since he was tested positive for Covid-19 which incapacitated the prime minister and threatened his life at the peak of the coronavirus crisis.
His inbox is full to bursting. His government, his party and his scientific advisers are divided over how and when the world's fifth largest economy should start to get back to work, albeit in a limited form.
At the start of the outbreak, Johnson initially resisted imposing a draconian lockdown but then changed course when projections showed that a quarter of a million people could die in the UK.
Since the lockdown was imposed on March 23, his government has faced criticism from opposition parties and some doctors for the UK's limited testing capabilities and the lack protective equipment for some frontline health workers.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who has replaced veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, urged Johnson to set out when and how an economic and social lockdown might be eased — as did some Conservative Party donors.
“Simply acting as if this discussion is not happening is not credible,” Starmer wrote in an open letter to Johnson.
He said the government had been too slow to impose the lockdown, to expand testing and to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospital and care home staff.
Johnson is expected to announce plans for how the lockdown could be eased as early as this week, the Daily Telegraph reported. — Reuters
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