Citizens of Britain have been warned that the coronavirus home lock-down could last for the next six months after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to every household warning the ‘national emergency’ is going to get worse, with emphasis placed on social distancing, use of sanitizers and staying at home.
Boris Johnson, who is under isolation after testing positive to the virus, had previously voiced optimism that the UK can end the outbreak within ’12 weeks’ but medical professionals see that optimism as too far fetched after the official UK coronavirus death toll rose by 209 in the last 48 hours from 1,019 to 1,228.
Dr Jenny Harries , the UK’s Deputy chief medical officer has now warned people to not expect to have a normal life anytime soon.
Speaking in Downing Street on Sunday, Dr Jenny said: ‘The issue of the three weeks is for us to review where we are and see if we’ve had an impact jointly on the slope of that curve.
‘But I think to make it clear to the public if we are successful we will have squashed the top of that curve, which is brilliant, but we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living that would be quite dangerous.
‘If we stop then all of our efforts will be wasted and we could potentially see a second peak. So over time, probably over the next six months, we will have a three-week review.’
UK Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said all parts of the country were now on a ‘war footing’ in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
‘This is an unprecedented step in peace time, we haven’t done anything like this since the Second World War,’ he said.
‘This means that we are establishing strategic coordination centres across the whole country.’
