Save economy, protect people: UK weighs next move in coronavirus war

The UK government is preparing to announce steps that could allow some business to resume, as pressure mounted over the country’s staggering death toll and the lockdown’s impact on the economy.

The measures, leaked to the British media Sunday, would cover new workplace practices from banning shared computers in offices to safe distancing on the factory floor. Under the plans, millions of companies will have to draw up a Covid-19 “risk assessment” before allowing staff to return to work.

“We’re consulting employers and unions, professionals and public health experts, to establish how we can ensure that we have the safest possible working environments, and the Prime Minister will be saying more later this week,” Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said Sunday. However, he stressed it would a long time before things were back to normal.

The next review of the UK’s Covid-19 strategy is due on May 7, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a key test of leadership that could shape post-virus UK.

According to The Daily Mail Downing Street was also preparing to allow the partial opening of schools on June 1 as well as a lifting on the ban of visits to beauty spots and picnics with the possibility of gatherings of more than 10 people.

Like most of the world, social distancing, temperature checks and face masks were expected to become the new normal in Britain. But with the outbreak hitting as the UK leaves the European Union, the mainstay of British foreign and trading policy for the past 40 years, the changes in the UK could be more profound than almost any country on Earth.