Boris Johnson has announced the UK is locked down for THREE weeks.
All non-essential shops must shut immediately announcing to the that the UK is now on lockdown to tackle coroavirus.
People must stay at home or face a fine.
All shops apart from food stores and chemists must close immediately, meeting friends is now banned and one form of exercise is allowed per day.
The lockdown, which will be in force for at least three weeks, follows growing pressure in recent days from the government’s top medical advisers and senior politicians.
Announcing powers not seen since wartime, Mr Johnson declared: “From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction – you must stay at home.
“Because the critical thing we must do is stop the disease spreading between households.”
People will only be allowed to leave their home for the following very limited purposes:
- Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
- One form of exercise a day – for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household
- Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
- Travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home
He added: “That’s all – these are the only reasons you should leave your home.
“You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say no.
“You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home.
“You should not be going shopping except for essentials like food and medicine – and you should do this as little as you can. And use food delivery services where you can.
“If you don’t follow the rules the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings.”
Mr Johnson added that these measures will come into force immediately:
- Closing all shops selling non-essential goods, including clothing and electronic stores and other premises including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms, and places of worship
- Stopping all gatherings of more than two people in public – excluding people you live with
- Stopping all social events, including weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals
“Parks will remain open for exercise but gatherings will be dispersed,” he continued.
Explaining why he has taken such strong action, Mr Johnson said: “Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.
“And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic health care systems, that is the moment of real danger.
“To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to handle it – meaning more people are likely to die, not just from coronavirus but from other illnesses as well.
“So it’s vital to slow the spread of the disease.
“Because that is the way we reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment at any one time, so we can protect the NHS’s ability to cope – and save more lives.
“And that’s why we have been asking people to stay at home during this pandemic.
“And though huge numbers are complying – and I thank you all – the time has now come for us all to do more.”
