Boris Johnson announces six rules we all need to follow to avoid a second lockdown

Yesterday Boris Johnson announced the easing of lockdown rules in the coming weeks, and with it he also released six rules to follow to avoid a second wave and lockdown. 

The government announced that pubs, restaurants, holiday parks, hotels and places of worship will all be allowed to reopen from July 4th.

It also announced the reopening of caravan parks and campsites, meaning although many Brits may be after an international holiday this year, they will still be able to get a staycation this summer.

The latest announcements are the biggest changes to lockdown restrictions since they were put in place on March 23rd to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Johnson has also said he would ‘not hesitate’ to put the brakes back on and reintroduce full lockdown in the UK if COVID-19 ‘begins to run out of control’.

The Prime Minister said: “The Government has asked a huge amount of all of you, and… the people of this country met that challenge with good humour and common sense.

“Of course the fight is far from over. This is a nasty virus still that wants to take advantage of our carelessness.”

He went onto explain that he would reverse changes at local or national levels as required.

Mr Johnson said ‘if we all continue to stay alert’ we can do our bit to ‘control the virus’. During the press conference, he announced six rules to follow to control coronavirus and help avoid another lockdown. 

The rules include:

• Keeping the 2-metre distance. He specified that if you can’t keep two metres apart, keep one metre with the other measures in place
• Wear face coverings on public transport and indoors in crowded environments – specifically where social distancing isn’t possible
• Wash hands regularly
• Follow the rules when visiting businesses
• Get tested if you develop symptoms
• Self-isolate if you are asked to do so by the NHS test and trace

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific advisor, said that the R number of coronavirus transmissions remains below one across the UK.

He also said that the epidemic is continuing to shrink slowly, between 2% and 4% daily.

Currently, 0.06% of the population of the UK – 33,000 people – have the disease, but the numbers are ‘flattening off’ according to Vallance.

He said: “Don’t be fooled that this means it has gone away. The disease is growing across the world. It is coming down in the UK but it hasn’t gone away.”

Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, explained that if the one metre plus rule were not followed, coronavirus cases could start to increase again. 

He said: “A lot of the changes are about emphasising things that we can do and it is really critical that individuals and firms take these really seriously.

“Because if we don’t take them seriously then chains of transmission between households will be reestablished.

“To be really clear, it is absolutely critical that every individual, every household and every firm takes these precautions seriously.

“If that does not happen, we will go back to a situation where transmission starts to rise again.”

He added: “It is not risk free. It cannot be risk free. Every time you take a step to open up there is some associated risk with that.

“You need to be prepared where there is local outbreaks to deal with them locally and if they become beyond local then you need to deal with them at regional and national levels which would mean reversal of some of the measures.

“That is the only way you can keep on top of this.”