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Boris Johnson toughens social distancing measures and strengthens the power of the police to enforce them

2020-09-09T17:51:26.709Z


Indoor or outdoor meetings may not be more than six people in EnglandBoris Johnson, this Wednesday, at the press conference to announce new measures against the coronavirus POOL / Reuters Boris Johnson's natural aversion to imposing measures that restrict individual freedoms - and, above all, that turn public opinion against him - made the social distancing rules of the first confinement ambiguous, and the total number of fines imposed by the police (at the end of


Boris Johnson, this Wednesday, at the press conference to announce new measures against the coronavirus POOL / Reuters

Boris Johnson's natural aversion to imposing measures that restrict individual freedoms - and, above all, that turn public opinion against him - made the social distancing rules of the first confinement ambiguous, and the total number of fines imposed by the police (at the end of May they barely added 15,000) has been much lower than that of other European countries.

Well-founded fear of a second wave of the virus as the fall wears on has robbed the prime minister of most of his prejudices.

From next Monday, any gathering of more than six people in England (not in the rest of the United Kingdom), indoors or outdoors, may be dissolved by the police and will have a fine of 110 euros, which may reach the 3,500 in the case of recidivism.

The criterion that governed the actions of the security forces until now (most of the measures were "recommendations", and their application was carried out "by consent"; that is, the police tried to explain and convince before sanctioning) has meant a headache for officers.

For example, outdoor gatherings of more than six people were not allowed if they were part of more than two family nuclei.

But the police did not have the powers to prevent them.

He only had them for the cases of more than thirty people.

  • Johnson Administration Tackles Explosive Political Course With Eroded Credibility

Everything will change from now on.

The rate of transmission of the virus has skyrocketed among the young population - the main cause of the outbreak - and the government's fear is that, sooner rather than later, they will end up infecting older people.

If the current average weekly figure is 10.5 infected per 100,000 inhabitants in the population band with ages between 60 and 70 years, the number shoots up to 48.1 between 17 and 18 years and up to 54 among the 19 and 21. This Wednesday, the United Kingdom has registered 2,659 infections, and it would be the fourth consecutive day in which the figure exceeds 2,000 cases.

"It is simply a matter of simplifying the rules and enforcing them, and above all making them easier for the police to understand and apply," said Johnson, who has promised to have the law that supports these new measures ready as soon as possible.

Together with the new powers, the Government is committed to providing cities with more agents, which it has baptized as

covid-secure marshals

(security agents for covid-19), to patrol the center and areas with the highest traffic .

The prime minister has had the backing of Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer from the first minute, who has been sympathetic to the toughening of the rules, despite continuing to prefer, he said, that the police act with consent methods .

Restaurants and bars will be required to record contact details for all their customers, and must preserve them for 21 days as well as hand them over to the National Health Service when required.

They face fines of up to 1,100 euros if they fail to meet the new obligations.

The new social distance rules will have exceptions.

They will not apply to workplaces or schools - Johnson's two main return-to-normal goals.

And weddings, funerals and team sports activities will be allowed.

“I want it to be absolutely clear,” he said, “these new measures do not represent another national lockdown.

Its ultimate purpose is precisely to prevent it from being necessary ”.

Johnson assures that the United Kingdom will have the capacity to carry out up to 500,000 daily tests at the end of October, and that it is already preparing "for the near future" the massive use of rapid tests that help identify non-infectious people, to return to a type of "more normal" life.

However, the delays and difficulties that the population currently has to get tests in public health have become the main subject of confrontation between the Government and Labor, and Downing Street has returned to give confusing explanations.

If last Tuesday he attributed the problems to the bottleneck that is generated in the laboratories, the Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, blamed this Wednesday the citizens who come to take the test without presenting symptoms of covid-19.

Information about the coronavirus

- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in Spain and in each autonomy

- Download the tracking application for Spain

- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities

- Guide to action against the disease

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-09-09

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