UK’s Boris Johnson to set out five-tier coronavirus warning system for England
- Johnson is expected to announce limited easing to the lockdown, including allowing people to go back to work and to exercise more than once a day
- The government’s flagship ‘stay at home’ slogan will be replaced with ‘stay alert’
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Johnson will use a televised address at 1800 GMT to announce limited changes, including encouraging more of those who cannot work from home to return to their offices and factories, and allowing people to exercise more than once a day, according to a government minister and British media.
Johnson’s announcement will only concern England, as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have already announced they are maintaining stay-at-home measures.
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The government’s flagship “stay at home” slogan will be replaced with “stay alert”, a decision that drew criticism from opposition parties for being too ambiguous.
“We need to have a broader message because we want to slowly and cautiously restart the economy and the country,” housing minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News, adding that Johnson would be setting out the road map for “the weeks and months ahead”.
But the focus is likely to be on a plan to contain infection rates in the longer term, with ministers considering imposing a 14-day quarantine on anyone coming in from abroad.
The Sunday Times reported that scientific advisers had told the government that deaths could exceed 100,000 by the end of the year if lockdown measures are relaxed too fast.
Johnson will detail a five-tier warning system for England, ranging from “green” at Level 1 to “red” at Level 5 to flag the Covid-19 risk in different areas and to allow the government to increase restrictions where necessary.
Britain is also trialling a new phone app to identify localised outbreaks, and in recent weeks has increased its capacity to test for coronavirus to around 100,000 a day.
Jenrick said the country is currently at 4 on the scale and authorities want that brought down to 3 as fast as possible.
“At each stage … we will be in a position to open up and restart more aspects of the economy and of our lives,” he said, adding that changes would be conditional on keeping the virus under control.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter that her message to Scotland would continue to be to stay at home.
Opposition parties criticised the government’s new “stay alert” slogan as confusing.
“There is no room for nuance,” the Labour Party’s health spokesman, Jonathan Ashworth, told BBC TV. “Many people will be puzzled by it … This virus really does exploit ambivalence and thrive on ambiguity, we need clarity at all times.”
