Boris's 'whack-a-mole' strategy to get Britain back to work: Kick-start construction, open offices under strict distancing and cleaning rules, hit emerging hotspots hard and send more children back in school
- PM expected to reveal roadmap of proposals to very carefully lift lockdown
- It is likely to be a very gradual easing with hotspots going back into closure
- Businesses and schools could reopen but pubs likely to be shut for months
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Boris Johnson will this week reveal his 'whack-a-mole' strategy to ease the coronavirus lockdown and put the UK economy back into gear.
The Prime Minister is expected to reveal his roadmap of proposals to very carefully and slowly lift the restriction in place since late March, but come down hard on any secondary hotspots that emerge.
The first easing of restrictions is not expected to come into force until June, and will be accompanied by the stricter enforcement of breaches of the remaining rules, with fines rising from the current £60 to more than £3,000 for repeat offenders.
It will include a massive PR blitz urging people who cannot work from home to go in where they can safely, and urging key workers to send their children back to school to free them up for vital tasks.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned that Britain will not return to 'business as usual' this month.
He told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: 'I don't think we should expect us to go from this situation that we have at the moment of social distancing back to where we were in February - that's clearly not going to happen and I don't think anyone imagines that for one moment.'
Ministers are concerned that the public have gone beyond the letter of the law introduced when the pandemic began to sweep the nation, according to the Sunday Times.
A senior Whitehall source told the paper: 'What you are going to see this week is a restatement of what we thought would happen right at the beginning when we first issued the lockdown.
'But it's going to be repackaged as a slow opening up of the economy. Please will construction sites reopen, please will you go to work if you can without hurting people, please if you are a key worker will you send your children to school.
'We've gone round the houses to get back to where we started.'
It came as:
- Senior doctors have warned Boris Johnson the lockdown should be eased for over-70s on mental health grounds
- Minsters were said to be examining plans to re-open some schools from the beginning of June
- Some people were found to be enjoying the lockdown, saying it was helping their relationships, they were enjoying work more and plan to spend more time with their children in future
- A ban on picnics and visits to beauty spots could be lifted
- Public transport could return to approaching normal levels of service but with measures in place to limit rush hour numbers
- Boris Johnson has revealed that doctors prepared to announce his death in case he lost his coronavirus battle.
New polls today reveal how reluctant Britons are to return to normal while hundreds of people are still dying every day.
The Prime Minister (right), whose son Wilfred was revealed to the world by mum Carrie Symonds yesterday (left) is expected to reveal his roadmap of proposals to very carefully and slowly lift the restriction in place since late March, but come down hard on any secondary hotspots that emerge.
Ministers are preparing to lift restrictions on outdoor activities such as picnics as the first stage in relaxing the lockdown rules.
More than four in five Britons are against lockdown restrictions being eased for schools, pubs and restaurants this week, according to a poll by Opinium for the Observer. Just 17 per cent thought the time was right to consider re-opening schools, with smaller proportions of people thinking conditions had been met to allow cinemas, sporting stadia and nightclubs to open their doors.
In the Sunday Times, a YouGov poll found that just 25 per cent of adults would feel safe returning to work and oppose reopening schools by 48 per cent to 28 per cent.
And 59 per cent of people polled by the Sunday Express said they would not feel comfortable going out and do not plan to resume a normal life next month.
Ministers will aim to tread a fine line between kickstarting economic activity and keeping 'R', the reproduction rate of the virus, below 1.
The number of people who have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK as of 5pm on Friday rose to 28,131, up by 621.
The death toll has edged closer to that of Italy, which now stands at 28,710 and is the highest in Europe, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
People will only be allowed to do exercise and go on picnics with members of their household and must stay at least two metres (6ft 6in) away from other groups
Ministers are concerned that the public have gone beyond the letter of the law introduced when the pandemic began to sweep the nation, according to the Sunday Times
Get businesses going again
The Government's main priority is getting the economy going again, amid dire statistics about commercial activity and hundreds of billions of pounds flowing out of the treasury to prop up firms and pay the wages of furloughed workers.
It comes as a leading business group urges the Government to be 'bold' and not shy away from sustaining high levels of public spending.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) laid out a series of moves for a phased end to the current lockdown in a letter to the PM.
Steps should include safely reopening public spaces, schools and public transport, as well as workplaces and commercial spaces, said the letter.
Moves should be made to minimise job losses and business failures, putting the UK economy on a 'high-growth, high-wage and low unemployment trajectory' as soon as possible.
The plans due to be laid out this week are reported to focus on those who work outside, including construction workers, because of science suggesting the virus is harder to catch outdoors.
Public transport is likely to return to normal levels and non-food retailers, factories, and warehouses will be encouraged to open.
Work on this has already started: people yesterday flocked to newly reopened DIY stores and rubbish tips.
Orderly queues formed at branches of Homebase, which opened 164 stores, as well as B&Q and Wickes. Costa Coffee drive-throughs were also busy.
Offices are expected to instruct most of their staff to continue working from home.
But for those who cannot there will be strict rules for office spaces
They include mandatory floor markings to keep staff two metres apart, staggered start times and breaks, limits on how many people can get in lifts and regular deep cleaning, according to the Sunday Express.
And in a blow to everyone desperate to celebrate the release of the lockdown with a cold pint in their local, pubs and restaurants are likely to remain closed for weeks or even months longer.
This is because the bring people into close proximity to each other in difficult to control ways.
But the phased reopening will be accompanied by harder action against those who break social distancing rules.
School is not out for summer
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps this morning told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'It's no secret that of course we want the kids to go back to school but I'd be over-egging it to say there's a date in place, there's a plan in place'
Primary schools could re-open on June 1, with students from Years 10 and 12 becoming the first in a wave of secondary pupils flocking to classes.
Boris Johnson is hoping to put teachers on three weeks' notice to re-open primary schools in England to all pupils as soon as next month.
Whitehall sources have claimed the earliest possible return of primary schoolchildren is intended to help parents to return to work.
It will also prevent damage being done to 'early years development' about which Gavin Williamson has warned, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
Officials are understood to be contemplating limiting the size of classes temporarily, while the question of when to re-open nurseries is an open one.
Pupils from Years 10 and 12 would then head to school, provided ministers were satisfied the transmission rate did not cause a 'second peak'.
The move is being considered as data show that younger children are potentially less likely to transmit Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The discussions also come after Mr Williams told the education select committee this week that schools would not reopen opening during the summer holidays as a way of helping pupils who have missed out on education to catch up.
The education secretary also suggested a phased return to schools, saying it was 'not realistic or practical' for all school children to return in one day.
He said scientists were looking at other countries for best practice and that a special team of the Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) had been set up to focus solely on schools reopening.
Mr Shapps told Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'It's no secret that of course we want the kids to go back to school but I'd be over-egging it to say there's a date in place, there's a plan in place.'
But Ofsted chief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman told the same programme: 'If if you look at the interests of children ... it's very clear that their interests are served, in the vast majority of cases, by being back at school as soon as possible.'
Public transport running - but with social distancing
Public transport could return to approaching normal levels of service but with measures in place to limit numbers.
Scenes of packed Tube trans during the lockdown shocked the nation and Mr Shapps this morning said that it was unlikely that would be allowed.
He indicated that the staggered start times enforced in offices could be used to help reduce peak demand on trains and buses.
'The crushes would be completely at odds with social distancing,' he told Sky.
'Of course i'm very concerned about people being able to wash their hands - it's still far and away the most important advice….
'We can help with that by trying to have hand sanitiser , one-way systems, spacing on platforms and at bus stops and that sort of this clearly marked out.
'There are a lot of different measures that can be taken, of which easing into this is clearly going to be one of the most important things of all.'
But he refused to confirm the idea reported last week that commuters could face temperature checks at stations before being allowed on to services.
Ban on picnics at beauty spots to be lifted
Ministers are preparing to lift restrictions on outdoor activities such as picnics as the first stage in relaxing the lockdown rules.
The Mail on Sunday understands the plans – likely to be introduced later this month if coronavirus infection rates continue to fall – will mean people can exercise several times each day and drive to the countryside and other outdoor spaces for walks and picnics.
However, they will only be allowed to do so with members of their household and must stay at least two metres (6ft 6in) away from other groups.
The change, which will end the sight of police officers moving on solitary sunbathers in parks, follows new scientific advice to ministers that the risk of transmitting the disease outside is substantially lower than indoors.
But people will still be barred from areas such as playgrounds and beaches where crowds congregate and the two-metre rule becomes harder to observe.
Covid-19 cases to be tracked by a smartphone app
Trials of an NHS coronavirus contact tracing smartphone app are to start in the Isle of Wight this week, before being rolled out nationwide.
Mr Shapps stressed the app would be completely confidential but called it a 'fantastic way' to ensure the country can 'keep a lid' on coronavirus and prevent a second wave.
'The idea is that we will encourage as many people to take this up as possible,' he said.
'This is going to be a huge national effort and we need for this to work 50-60% of people to be using this app.
'Not everybody has a smartphone, and I appreciate that for various reasons not everybody will download it but it will be the best possible way to help the NHS.'
Mr Shapps said he did not know how many of the 18,000 contact tracers the Government is seeking have been hired yet - with plans for them to be in place by mid-May.
He told Sky: 'It's not an issue because the app isn't going to be available for some time yet, a few weeks yet, but when it is there we will have the people in place.'
Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said that testing and tracing will be 'so important' in easing the lockdown in the weeks and months ahead.
Speaking on Sky's Sophy Ridge programme, he said: 'We've been asking for the ramping up of testing so clearly I'm pleased that testing has been ramped up.
'I think there's always been a difference between the number of tests actually carried out and the overall statistics, indeed the number of people tested is a different figure.
'But of course I'm pleased that testing has been ramped up. But that in itself is not a strategy.
'Firstly, the testing has to be increased further, I mean the original target we were talking about a quarter of a million tests a day some time ago, but it has to be linked to tracing as well and it's that testing and tracing that is going to be so important now in terms of easing the measures of the lockdown in the weeks and months ahead.'
Britons will be allowed to exercise several times each day and drive to the countryside for walks and picnics in the first stage of relaxing lockdown
Ministers are preparing to lift restrictions on outdoor activities such as picnics as the first stage in relaxing the lockdown rules.
The Mail on Sunday understands the plans – likely to be introduced later this month if coronavirus infection rates continue to fall – will mean people can exercise several times each day and drive to the countryside and other outdoor spaces for walks and picnics.
However, they will only be allowed to do so with members of their household and must stay at least two metres (6ft 6in) away from other groups.
The change, which will end the sight of police officers moving on solitary sunbathers in parks, follows new scientific advice to ministers that the risk of transmitting the disease outside is substantially lower than indoors.
But people will still be barred from areas such as playgrounds and beaches where crowds congregate and the two-metre rule becomes harder to observe.
The softening of restrictions will be accompanied by the stricter enforcement of breaches of the remaining rules, with fines rising from the current £60 to more than £3,000 for repeat offenders.
Boris Johnson's review of the lockdown on Thursday is not expected to lead to any more substantial changes until next month when public transport is likely to return to normal levels and non-food retailers, factories, warehouses and more construction sites will be encouraged to open.
Offices are expected to instruct most of their staff to continue working from home, while pubs and restaurants are likely to remain closed for weeks or even months longer.
Global deaths were approaching 250,000 – including more than 65,000 in the US – as many European countries made the first tentative steps out of lockdown.
Asked about relaxing restrictions on outdoor activities in Britain, a senior government source said: 'Thanks to the huge efforts of the British public we are past the peak of the virus without the NHS having been overwhelmed.
'Now we can start to look at which elements of the social distancing rules can be adjusted while keeping the rate of transmission down, so we are looking at how to lift everyone's spirits by allowing the public to get into the great outdoors.'
While relaxing some measures, Ministers plan to 'come down hard' on 'hotspots' where infection rates rise. Fines for breaching coronavirus rules are expected to be increased to £100 and keep on double for any repeat offence up to a maximum £3,200 for serial offenders, who could also face arrest.
The source added: 'The vast majority of people have followed the rules, but in the next phase of our fight it will be even more critical that a small minority of rule-breakers do not put the rest of us at risk. That is why we will give the police tougher powers.'
The Government is also expected to issue formal guidance next week advising that face masks should be worn to work.
People yesterday flocked to newly reopened DIY stores and rubbish tips – although dumps in Greater Manchester are to use number plate recognition to limit the number of visits. Orderly queues formed at branches of Homebase, which opened 164 stores, as well as B&Q and Wickes. Costa Coffee drive-throughs were also busy.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtODI4MTc4NS9Cb3Jpc3Mtd2hhY2stbW9sZS1zdHJhdGVneS1Ccml0YWluLXdvcmstc2Nob29sLmh0bWzSAWhodHRwczovL3d3dy5kYWlseW1haWwuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlLTgyODE3ODUvYW1wL0Jvcmlzcy13aGFjay1tb2xlLXN0cmF0ZWd5LUJyaXRhaW4td29yay1zY2hvb2wuaHRtbA?oc=5
2020-05-03 08:54:19Z
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