With this second national lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to prevent hospital staff from being forced to choose between which patients they can and cannot treat. These are some of the new rules:
- Pubs and restaurants are closed, takeout is allowed
- Non-essential stores are closed
- Everyone should stay at home as much as possible, unless it is necessary for work or study, for example
- People are allowed to meet up with one person outside their household in public places
- Weddings are not allowed in principle
- Funerals do, with a maximum of 30 people
- Schools and universities remain open
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In principle, the rules apply until December 2. “Prime Minister Johnson wants to keep to that, so that the British can get out again before Christmas,” says RTL correspondent Anne Saenen. ” First of all to keep the economic impact as small as possible, but also because he is afraid of losing support. Christmas is even more important for the people here than for the Dutch. It is the time of the year for them. Johnson fears that despite all the rules, they will still get together. ”
Whether it will stay at four weeks, according to Saenen, is the question. “I notice around me that no one believes it will last so short. The previous lockdown would also last three weeks, which eventually turned into months. There are also sounds from politicians that it is not a realistic time plane, that it will probably take more time to get the infections down. ”
Trial with mass testing
In addition, the United Kingdom will start a pilot from next Friday in which they will try out so-called ‘mass testing’. That will happen in Liverpool, one of the biggest hot spots in England. More than half a million people – regardless of whether they have symptoms or not – will be tested for the virus. People with a positive result are asked to go into self-quarantine.
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“The reason they do this is because the source and contact research in England is not working effectively enough,” explains Saenen. The English version of the corona app is not really successful. Very few people who have to isolate themselves according to the app adhere to this. Moreover, the British soon have to go into isolation: if a primary school student turns out to be infected, the entire class has to be quarantined. With this approach you can isolate people more specifically. ”
The current test lanes will be used during the trial. In addition, new test locations are opened in schools, universities and nursing homes, among others. The army is deployed to help.
Potency
Johnson is optimistic about the testing program: “It is still early days, but mass testing like this has the potential to become a powerful new weapon in our fight against Covid-19,” he said. But according to World Health Organization (WHO) Director Mike Ryan, mass testing is costly and unrealistic, though testing asymptomatic people can be helpful.
Depending on the success in Liverpool, Johnson plans to repeat the plan in other municipalities before Christmas.
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