Work from home, Johnson urges as Britain begins second shutdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told British people to work from home and imposed new curbs on pubs, bars and restaurants in a bid to tackle a swiftly accelerating second wave of coronavirus infections on Tuesday.

In an address to parliament at 11.30am and then to the nation at 7pm, Johnson stopped short of a full national lockdown of the sort he imposed in March.

“We know this won’t be easy, but we must take further action to control the resurgence in cases of the virus and protect the NHS,” Johnson said.

The measures come after senior medics warned on Monday that Britain faced an exponentially growing death rate within weeks unless urgent action was taken.

New Covid-19 cases are rising by at least 6,000 a day in Britain, according to week-old data. Hospital admissions are doubling every eight days, and the testing system is buckling.

The new curbs will restrict the hospitality sector to table service only, by law.

Just weeks after urging people to start returning to work, Johnson advised them to work from home if they could. He also ordered all pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality sites across England to start closing at 10pm from Thursday.

“One of the things we are going to emphasise is that if it is possible for people to work from home, we are going to encourage them to do so,” said Michael Gove, minister for the cabinet office.

“There is going to be a shift in emphasis.”

While millions across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are already under some form of restriction, Johnson is not expected to announce a fully fledged lockdown of the kind seen in March.

Britain will face an exponentially growing death rate from Covid-19 unless the government moves urgently, said Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser.

The UK already has the biggest official Covid-19 death toll in Europe — and the fifth largest in the world — while it is borrowing record amounts in an attempt to pump emergency money through the damaged economy.

Gove, one of Johnson’s most senior ministers, said there were many roles that could not be performed at home, in areas from manufacturing and construction to retail.

“We need to balance the need to ensure people can continue to work, and — critically — continue to go to school and benefit from education, against taking steps to reduce the virus, which is why if we can limit social contact, that is what we are trying to do,” he said.

“Second shutdown begins”, read the front-page headline of the Daily Telegraph while the Daily Mail says: “UK slammed into reverse”.

Shares in Britain’s listed pubs and restaurant groups fell sharply on Monday in anticipation of the move. — Reuters