Boris Johnson Forced To Clarify UK Lockdown Advice

By Staff, Agencies

In his first statement to Parliament on the coronavirus pandemic, months after the beginning of the outbreak in the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday issued a lengthy clarification to his government's advice over the lifting of lockdown measures.

He had addressed citizens on Sunday evening in a recorded televised address, but his statement was criticized for prompting more questions than it had answered.

Johnson, who was himself hospitalized with the virus, said those people who could not work from home should return to their usual places of work, but did not specify who those people were, when they should return, or what bosses should do to ensure those workplaces were safe.

Johnson also said public transport should be avoided where possible, but confusion about who should be returning to work, as well as drastically-reduced services, led to chaotic scenes on Monday morning of crowded London Underground platforms leaving commuters with no chance of social distancing.

Adding to the confusion was Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who deputized for Johnson when the prime minister was sick, as he appeared to change the government's lockdown advice three times within an hour during appearances on Monday morning talk shows.

Raab told Sky News that government scientists were studying whether there could be limited contact between family members who live in separate households.

He then told BBC News that a person could see both of their parents, as long as they did so outdoors, and one at a time - "mum in the morning and dad in the afternoon", while maintaining social distancing of two meters.

Subsequently interviewed on BBC Radio 4, Raab said that people could meet both of their parents at the same time, for example, in a park, as long as they kept to the two-meter distancing rule.

Johnson made his statement in the House of Commons in the afternoon, and led a later-than-usual news briefing in the evening.

"Our challenge now is to find a way forward that preserves our hard-won gains while easing the burden of lockdown," he told Parliament. "This is a supremely difficult balance."