Prime Minister Boris Johnson implemented a series of restrictive measures in the United Kingdom to prevent people from leaving their homes in hopes of stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday, Johnson announced that he had given law enforcement the authority to punish people for leaving their homes for nonessential reasons. He explained, “From this evening, I must give the British people a very simple instruction: You must stay at home.”
Johnson left just four permissible reasons to be outside the home: grocery shopping, exercising once per day, seeking medical attention, or attending work for a job deemed essential. He also announced that all stores must end the sale of nonessential products, such as clothing and electronics.
Any gathering of more than two people who live outside the same household has been banned, as well. This regulation applies to all ceremonies, excluding funerals.
“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,” Johnson said. “And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic healthcare systems, that is the moment of real danger.”
He added, “To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the [National Health System] 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. No prime minister wants to enact measures like this. I know the damage that this disruption is doing and will do to people’s lives, to their businesses, and to their jobs.”
Johnson noted that police will be enforcing each policy, adding, “If you don’t follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them.”
The policy will be in place for the next three weeks. At that point, it will be reviewed and repealed if necessary. As of Monday afternoon, the U.K. had more than 6,700 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 336 related deaths.
Johnson had already announced a ban on nonessential businesses, including pubs. His father, Stanley Johnson, was one of many Britons who refused to abide by the requests. He responded to his son’s decisions at the time, saying, “Of course, I’ll go to a pub if I need to go to a pub. He said you should avoid going to the pubs, but, if I had to go to a pub, I’d go to a pub.”
