UPDATE - UK Prime Minister Announces New Strict Four-Week COVID-19 Lockdown For England

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UPDATE - UK Prime Minister Announces New Strict Four-Week COVID-19 Lockdown for England

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2020) UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced on Saturday that England would enter another four-week strict lockdown from Thursday, in an attempt to tackle a current surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

"You must stay at home, you may only leave home for specific reasons, including education, work," Johnson said at a news conference.

According to him, the new measures are generally similar to those introduced in spring, except for educational institutions that will not have to close. According to the government decision, all pubs, bars, entertainment organizations and restaurants will be closed. They will be able to work only to sell food and drinks for take away or using delivery service. All non-food stores and those selling non-vital goods will be closed. However, supermarkets will not have to separate and close non-food sections.

Residents of England with over 56-million population in the region as of mid-2019, will be strongly encouraged to stay at home and work from home.

Any meetings of people inside the premises are prohibited. An exception will be made for kindergartens, schools, universities and social services.

Any overseas trips are prohibited, with an exception of those for business reasons. Traveling within the country is also not recommended, with an exception of business trips.

"We are not going back to the full-scale lockdown of March and April. It is less prohibitive and less restrictive. But from Thursday the basic message is the same. Stay at home. Protect the NHS [National Health System]. And save lives," Johnson added.

Prior to Johnson's speech, the government's chief scientific adviser spoke about the increase in the incidence of coronavirus and presented preliminary forecasts, according to which the United Kingdom expects a surge in new COVID-19 cases and deaths, which will be several times higher than during the spring peak.

The United Kingdom has so far confirmed a total of 1,014,793 cases of the coronavirus infection and 46,645 fatalities.