LONDON, May 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will
on Sunday set out the next stage of his plan to tackle coronavirus, but with
the highest toll in Europe and deaths still rising, few changes are expected
to a nationwide lockdown.
In a televised address to the nation at 7:00pm (1800 GMT), Johnson is
expected to extend most of the stay-at-home orders imposed in late March,
although garden centres will reopen.
Media reports say he will change the government’s advice to the public
from “stay home” to “stay alert”, to begin the process of urging people to go
back to work.
But the focus is likely to be on a plan to contain infection rates in the
longer term, with ministers considering imposing a 14-day quarantine on
anyone coming in from abroad.
An alert system is also being developed to monitor the outbreak, which
will inform when and how lockdown measures might be lifted — or tightened —
at a national and local level.
Johnson, who himself spent a week in hospital with coronavirus last month,
has made clear he will proceed with “maximum caution”.
He has been criticised for failing to take the outbreak seriously enough
at the start, still shaking hands in early March and delaying the imposition
of a lockdown.
Britain has now recorded more than 31,500 deaths among people who have
tested positive for COVID-19 — the second highest figure in the world after
the United States.
There are growing demands from his own MPs to lift the lockdown as it
wreaks economic havoc — the Bank of England this week predicted a 14-percent
slump in British GDP this year.
But in an interview with the Sun on Sunday newspaper, Johnson warned that
now was “the most dangerous bit”.
“We’re past the peak now but we’ll have to work even harder to get every
step right,” he said.
“Mountaineers always say that coming down from the peak is the most
dangerous bit. That’s when you’re liable to be over-confident and make
mistakes.
“You have very few options on the climb up, but it’s on the descent you
have to make sure you don’t run too fast, lose control and stumble.”
– Stay home? –
The government has had to lower expectations about Johnson’s address,
after newspaper reports earlier this week suggested the lockdown would be
eased.
Public adherence to the rules has so far been good, but crowds flocked to
parks this weekend to take advantage of the hot weather.
There is some concern that the government’s message to “stay alert” might
sow confusion, with Scotland’s first minister among the critics.
“Given the critical point we are at in tackling the virus,
#StayHomeSaveLives remains my clear message to Scotland at this stage,”
Nicola Sturgeon tweeted.
Johnson’s announcement will only concern England, as Wales, Scotland and
Northern Ireland have already announced they are maintaining stay-at-home
measures.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said England’s new messaging was
about people taking “personal responsibility” by maintaining social
distancing and washing their hands.
“We should be staying at home as much as possible but when we do go to
work and go back to our business we need to remain vigilant,” he told Sky
News television.
He revealed details of the new alert system, led by a new centre for
biosecurity, which will assess the risk of coronavirus at one of five levels
and monitor the impact of any changes.
Britain is also trialling a new phone app to identify localised outbreaks,
and in recent weeks has increased its capacity to test for coronavirus to
around 100,000 a day.