- Boris Johnson has finally published his 50-page ‘exit strategy’ document from the coronavirus lockdown
- Last night PM told Britons to ‘stay alert, control virus and save lives’ in new government coronavirus slogan
- Colleagues can return to work in any numbers if social distancing is enforced, but families cannot meet up
- Johnson’s ‘conditional’ plan could see schools start to open in June and parts of hospitality industry in July
- He has introduced a five-tier DefCon-style warning system to monitor the threat the virus poses in the UK
- Garden centres will be given the green light to reopen from Wednesday with ‘social distancing’ rules in place
- Once-a-day-rule on outdoor exercise is being ditched and bigger focus on going to work where possible
- Families and friends could be allowed to mix in ‘bubbles’ from next month if the battle against virus goes well
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
People could start mixing in ‘bubbles’ with family and friends from the beginning of next month – at the same time as TV sports make a comeback.
The details emerged in the government’s 50-page ‘road map’ finally published this afternoon – after a shambolic 12 hours since Boris Johnson’s address to the nation.
The blueprint stressed that the five tests have not yet been met, and so major loosening of the draconian curbs is not possible.
In a grim foreword, the PM said ‘we must acknowledge that life will be different, at least for the foreseeable future’. Mr Johnson warned that a vaccine was the main long-term way out of the crisis, but the plan cautioned that ‘it is possible a safe and effective vaccine will not be developed for a long time (or even ever),
But the document said ‘smarter’ social distancing measures are being introduced to try and nudge the country back to some sort of normality. In the future restrictions will be targeted ‘more precisely’, recognising that ‘not everybody’s or every group’s risk is the same’.
The guidelines say those who can should continue to work from home ‘for the foreseeable future’, and pointed to full health and safety guidelines due to be published tomorrow.
From Wednesday all workers are being urged to return to duties in sectors such as food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and scientific research in laboratories.
‘The only exceptions to this are those workplaces such as hospitality and non-essential retail which during this first step the Government is requiring to remain closed,’ the document said.
The plan said schools cannot yet fully reopen, but said more key workers should be encouraged to send their children. ‘There is a large societal benefit from vulnerable children, or the children of critical workers, attending school: local authorities and schools should therefore urge more children who would benefit from attending in person to do so,’ it said.
Face coverings are being advised for people on public transport and in enclosed spaces – something that happened in Scotland a fortnight ago.
The document also corrected another blunder overnight, stating clearly that people are able to play outdoor sports such as tennis or golf with one other person from another household.
From next month, primary schools will start to get back up and running for reception, year 1 and year 6. But classes will be kept small, and the majority of secondaries are set to stay closed until September.
Parents will not face fines for refusing to send their children.
At this point the government will also look at ‘permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact’.
More non-essential shops will also start to be opened – although hairdressers and beauty salons are not likely to return until July at the earliest.
The document also sets out how families and friends might be able to mix from next month, if the virus remains under control.
‘As restrictions continue, the Government is considering a range of options to reduce the most harmful social effects to make the measures more sustainable.
‘For example, the Government has asked SAGE to examine whether, when and how it can safely change the regulations to allow people to expand their household group to include one other household in the same exclusive group.
‘The intention of this change would be to allow those who are isolated some more social contact, and to reduce the most harmful effects of the current social restrictions, while continuing to limit the risk of chains of transmission. It would also support some families to return to work by, for example, allowing two households to share childcare.
‘This could be based on the New Zealand model of household ‘bubbles’ where a single ‘bubble’ is the people you live with.
‘As in New Zealand, the rationale behind keeping household groups small is to limit the number of social contacts people have and, in particular, to limit the risk of inter-household transmissions.’
The road map said the Government is also examining how to hold ‘small weddings’. However, there is no reference in the material to foreign holidays – suggesting they are off the agenda for a long time to come.
Sir Patrick Vallance, England’s chief scientific adviser, said experts were confident the measures announced by the UK Government would not increase the rate of transmission of coronavirus.
‘From a scientific point of view, the review was happy that the first wave of proposals were unlikely to push R above one,’ he told reporters during a briefing.
‘And then it needs to be monitored very carefully thereafter.’
Addressing the new advice which allows more outdoor contact, Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said: ‘There is a little bit of room for manoeuvre, the numbers are going down.
‘We are confident the R is below one already, that’s the first bit of background to this.
‘Secondly we are confident that the risk of being outdoors, in terms of meeting people, provided it is with social distancing, is significantly lower than that of indoors.
‘We are confident these quite small changes will not have a material affect, on their own, provided people stick to the social distancing and the rules that are there, on increasing the R beyond where we are at the moment.’
Prof Chris Whitty said the changes to the Government guidelines for England were about making ‘sustainable’ alterations for the long term.
‘There are clear benefits to making this sustainable,’ he told reporters.
‘We have to do this for the long haul, it is really important to understand that.
‘Taking a very small risk for something which manages to make it more sustainable for people to do has some clear benefits.
‘We are not claiming there are no risks in this but what we think is that they are very small and proportionate to the advantage of overall wellbeing, exercise leading to good health and sustainability.’
Earlier, the government’s stance was thrown into confusion as Dominic Raab was forced to clarify Mr Johnson’s call in a speech last night for millions of workers to return to duties immediately.
The Foreign Secretary insisted the government is not urging workers to return until Wednesday, despite No10’s official press release on the PM’s TV address saying they should go back today.
The comment, when many will have already been on their way by road or public transport, came as it emerged that health and safety guidance for businesses will not be issued until tomorrow – 24 hours before the back to work edict now comes into force.
Mr Raab spread more turmoil by suggesting that people can meet two relatives such as parents in parks while maintaining social distancing, sending Downing Street scrambling to say that is not in fact the case.
He also got in a muddle and suggested that pubs could open as early as June – when the PM said it would be no earlier than July.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Government’s strategy to ease the lockdown was already ‘unravelling’ within hours of it being announced – while Unite union baron Len McCluskey stoked up class war rhetoric by saying ministers were ‘recklessly’ telling manual labourers to risk their own safety while the wealthy stay at home.
Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon demanded that Mr Johnson stop telling Scots what to do, saying she would ban the new ‘stay alert’ public information campaign from being aired north of the border because the ‘vague’ words could put lives at risk.
On another turbulent day as the government’s plans threatened to descend into a shambles:
- New analysis has suggested people working in social care, including care workers and home carers, along with bus drivers and security guards have ‘significantly’ higher death rates involving Covid-19 than the working population as a whole;
- Despite the ‘road map’ being published, guidance for health and safety in workplaces will not be released until tomorrow;
- Mr Johnson will be grilled in the Commons this afternoon and address a public event tonight, but is not expected to front a daily No10 press conference;
- The viewing figures for Mr Johnson’s big speech were 27.49million last night, higher than the 27.1million for his original lockdown announcement and more than the 23.3million for the Queen. It was the eighth most-watched programme in British history;
- British Airways has warned that the 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals in the UK could mean it does not start flights in July as expected;
- Jury trials in England and Wales are to resume from next week, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett has announced;
In a bewildering series of interviews this morning, Mr Raab tried and failed to shed light on the new rules that residents in England are being asked to follow.
He said people could now, for example, meet different family members separately on the same day while maintaining social distancing.
He said: ‘If you’re out in the park and you’re two metres apart, we’re saying now, (if you) use some common sense and you socially distance, you can meet up with other people.’
Asked if someone could meet their mother in the morning and their father in the afternoon, he said: ‘Outside in the outdoors, staying two metres apart, yes.’
When asked later if someone could meet up with both their parents in a park, Mr Raab said: ‘Well, you could if there’s two metres apart.’
However, Mr Raab said people should not play group sports such as football with other households.
‘Two people from the same home could go and play tennis, because that’s something where they could stay two metres apart from everyone else,’ he said.
‘What you couldn’t then do, and this is why we say you’ve got to stay alert, you couldn’t then go into the clubhouse and mill around where you will be within two metres of other people.
‘So, football would be one of those where I think would be very difficult to stay two metres apart if you’re playing, you know, 11-a-side or even five-a-side.’
Mr Raab also said people could drive as far as they wanted to if there was an outdoor area they wished to visit.
He said: ‘You can drive as far as you want to drive to go and walk in a park or a particular area that you’re fond of as long as you maintain the social distancing.
‘But obviously, if you’re going from one part of the UK to another, so if you’re going from England to Wales or from Scotland to Wales and different rules are in place because the devolved administrations take a different approach, you need to be very mindful of the regulations that they’ve got in place.’
Mr Raab also urged people to go back to work from Wednesday if they cannot work from home.
‘If you can work from home, you should continue to do so, but there are nine sectors of the economy like manufacturing and construction, where people can’t do their job from home,’ he said.
‘So we’re saying to them they should now from Wednesday, go back to work.’
Sir Keir told LBC the position had obviously shifted. ‘I accept that for some things, like when can a school open, that’s going to be conditional, but on this business of going back to work, the suggestion was last night that people go back to work today if they can’t work at home, but don’t use public transport – and that’s really difficult, particularly if you’re in a city like London – and without guidelines in place as to how work places need to operate.
‘You know, simple things like how do you keep people two metres apart? What about sanitation, protective equipment?
‘These are things that were discussed in a consultation document last weekend but not resolved yet.
‘I was actually quite surprised the prime minister said, effectively in 12 hours’ time, start going back to work without those bits in place.
‘We needed that clarity and it is unravelling a bit this morning because I think the foreign secretary has now said, ”Well, go back to work doesn’t really mean until Wednesday”, so suddenly it has shifted.’
Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband immediately criticised the messaging, tweeting: ‘The PM didn’t say workplace changes applied from Wednesday.
‘He said ‘And the first step is a change of emphasis that we hope that people will act on this week.’
‘Wednesday was only mentioned in relation to other changes. Words matter.
‘Clarity is essential. This is shambolic.’
Patrick Roach, general secretary of teaching union NASUWT, said the profession has ‘very serious concerns’ about children returning to school on June 1, adding no clear plan had been put in place.
The chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA), Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said the Government had created confusion in its messaging, adding that there was still ‘a considerable amount of community circulation of the virus going on’.
He added: ‘If we now allow the public to go to local parks in an unlimited sense, and to go outdoors… what we’ve not heard is how the Government will enforce social distancing and how it will avoid a whole neighbourhood playing in a park, with footballs moving from one group to another, and spreading the disease.
‘So, I’m really concerned that there is no clarity.’
Commuters have reported significant traffic jams on major roads such as the M25 for the first time since the UK’s 66million people were told to stay at home on March 23.
Others posted pictures on social media of their crammed buses and squashing on to trains despite Mr Johnson urging people to avoid public transport and use their cars, bicycles or walk as anger grew about his ‘vague’ instructions and ‘mixed messages’ about the coronavirus lockdown.
An IT specialist has revealed how he was ordered to return to work just minutes after Mr Johnson eased several lockdown restrictions as criticism grew that the new measures are confusing.
Cristian Ciomaga, 20, was one of dozens of commuters at Ealing Broadway station, west London who joined the growing chorus of criticism from across the country at the Prime Minister’s muddled television announcement on the easing of the lockdown.
Mr Ciomaga, who works as a computer programmer in central London fumed: ‘Just minutes after Boris finished the announcement, I got an email from my boss telling me that I had to return to work.
‘Until now, I’ve been working from home, but the boss said we’ve got a project coming up which has to be done from the office. I’m not sure if that’s entirely true, I think he just wants to see our faces at work again but that’s what the Government has now given him permission to do.’
Mr Ciomaga, who was about to board a Central Line train, added: ‘I’m not sure what precautions my company has put in place around social distancing and other safety measures.
‘I could easily continue working from home and I’m very worried what the situation will be like in the office.’
Construction workers have said around 40 per cent of the workforce is back after Boris Johnson’s announcement to get back to work if you cannot work from home.
Pipe fitter Konstantin Subatu said: ‘Nothing’s changed for me. I’ve been working all the way through. We’ve definitely got a lot more guys back – about 40 per cent more guys are back at work.
‘It’s great for them. No one wants to sit at home for eight weeks with no income. You can’t pay the rent or your bills. I’d say the mood is pretty good today.
‘It depends on the contractor on how safe it is, and how seriously they’re taking it all. You get some who are super strict on it, and others less so.
Roofer Dwayne Jones, 40, said: ‘I’m working with a contractor today, but I’ve had no side work for the whole time this has been happening.
‘So while contract stuff has been low on the ground, it’s great to get construction back on track.
‘Hopefully people are going to be more open to having the likes of me back on their roofs.
‘You won’t be able to catch anything from me while I’m on your roof, so I don’t see how it’s an issue.’
Labour has suggested that workers should ignore the Prime Minister’s advice until the Government publishes full guidance for employers to make workplaces safe for staff to return.
Trains and Tube services were busier today, but office and banking districts such as the City of London and Canary Wharf were largely deserted.
The Government is already facing bitter rows with transport unions about increasing the number of buses and trains towards normal levels and teaching unions about plans to reopen primary schools from June 1.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said: ‘People cannot get to work safely unless there is safe transport for them to use. This has not been thought through and the failure to do so places working people in danger.’
Rhondda MP Chris Bryant said: ‘It was crazy for the PM to make his statement on a Sunday evening and expect people to go to work 12 hours later without using public transport. Now we have utter confusion and mixed messages.
‘It’s difficult not to conclude that working class workers are expected to go to work whilst middle class workers work from home. But the ‘new normal’ can’t just be a repeat of the old divide. Surely?’.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
