Johnson Considers Lockdown as Britons Ignore Advice on Virus

(Bloomberg) --

Boris Johnson warned he will impose “tougher measures” to curb the spread of coronavirus if people continue to ignore calls to stop social gatherings, with a decision coming as soon as Monday on whether to restrict movement “altogether.”

The U.K.’s weekend newspapers reported Britons are meeting in parks and making trips to coastal towns after the government last week ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close. The prime minister said that while he wanted to avoid some of the more stringent measures taken by other countries -- Italy and Spain have opted for a fuller lockdown -- his government may be forced to act, and will consider its options in the next 24 hours.

“We need to think about the kinds of measures that we’ve seen elsewhere, other countries that have been forced to bring in restrictions on people’s movements altogether,” Johnson said at a televised press conference on Sunday. “Some people are not making it easy for us because they are congregating in a way that helps spread the disease.”

Johnson’s comments come a day after he warned that the National Health Service is as little as two weeks away from being overcome by coronavirus cases, as happened in Italy. From Monday, he will seek to fast-track emergency legislation through Parliament giving his government more power to close meeting places and detain people who are a danger to public health.

‘Stop Mixing’

The latest data on Sunday show a significant jump in Britain’s death toll, to 281 from 177 on Friday. The total number of cases is above 5,500 with the disease spreading fastest in the capital. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said police may need to use additional powers provided for in the emergency legislation to enforce so-called social distancing if gatherings don’t stop.

“Unless people stay home, unless people stop using public transport, unless people stop interacting with each other, more people will die,” Khan told the BBC. “Please, please, please, stop mixing and stay at home.”

Johnson’s national government came under criticism over its response in the early weeks of the crisis, with medical experts calling for more urgent action to contain the pandemic. Tighter measures came in a rush last week, with schools and leisure facilities ordered to close, and people instructed to stay indoors. Retailers such as Primark, John Lewis, TK Maxx and the Arcadia groups announced they would close stores across the country.

The government is now telling 1.5 million people with underlying health issues to self-isolate for at least three months.

Ventilators

The situation is “deeply worrying” and the next week will be “absolutely critical,” Jeremy Hunt, the U.K.’s longest-serving health secretary from 2012 to 2018, told Sky News. “It’s very, very disappointing when people don’t obey the simple instructions that are being given out.”

The NHS faces a shortage of ventilators and virus testing kits. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC a new antibody test -- which Johnson has called a “game changer” because it will show who has already had the disease -- will be available in the coming weeks.

He also said the government had already received some prototype ventilators from the private sector, and has boosted the total number to 12,000 from 5,000 at the start of last week. He rejected claims the government had been too slow to react to the crisis as it developed in other countries.

But he warned it would take time for the impact of measures to halt the virus to be visible, and said Johnson’s statement that the U.K. would “turn the tide” in three months did not mean the end of the crisis.

“No one is pretending this will be over in 12 weeks,” he said.

Last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak rolled out an unprecedented support package for U.K. workers, with the government stepping in to pay up to 80% of the wages of at-risk jobs, at a potential cost of at least 10 billion pounds ($11.6 billion).

On Sunday, Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, welcomed the support but told Sky News more must be done to help the country’s estimated 5 million self-employed. Jenrick said doing so is more complicated than salaried workers but that Sunak is keeping the issue under review.

“If we need to do more, we will do it,” Jenrick said.

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