Yesterday Boris Johnson unveiled the UK’s new lockdown motto; ‘Stay Alert, Control The Virus, Save Lives’, however many have found this language vague and confusing as it does not give clear guidance on what is now allowed as per the lockdown rules. Tara Pilkington brings you 5 things that you need to know.
While the prime minister is urging people who cannot perform their job from home to return to work, there is still some uncertainty as to what the new guidelines mean and what activity is now permitted under the lockdown.
Here are 5 things that you need to know.
- Return to the workplace if you cannot work from home. The most significant update from the prime minister was regarding his comments where he has urged people who cannot work from home, for instance, construction workers, to return to their jobs from today. While saying that people should be “actively encouraged to go to work”, this has opened up the debate regarding which jobs can and cannot be done from home.
- Avoid public transport. For those who are going back to work, they should avoid public transport where possible and either go to the office via travel which allows for social distancing, such as workers using their personal cars, or walking/using a bicycle to get to work.
- Schools in England will reopen for some primary school pupils from as early as 1 June. Johnson also confirmed a plan in which reception, year one and year six primary school students will be able to go back to school following the half-term at the start of June. However, this is not guaranteed, as it will rely on teachers and schools being assured about measures such as proper social distancing.
- Restaurants and cafes to remain closed until at least July. While some shops may reopen as early as June, the hospitality industry will likely not resume until July “at the earliest” and only where safe social distancing can be enforced. This, however, does not apply to pubs, who so far have no indication of when they can consider reopening.
- Unlimited exercise is now permitted. People will now be able to exercise outdoors more than once a day from Wednesday, and they will now also be allowed to meet and sit down with one other person, outdoors, as long as they remain two metres apart.
In a phone interview with LBC, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said: “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 workplaces need to operate…
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.”
