As real life rapidly morphs into a bad disaster movie, there are now strong and substantiated suggestions that London could go into 'lockdown'. Who's saying what, though — and what would it look like?
London has almost a third of the UK's cases
Out of the UK's 2,626 confirmed cases of the disease, London has 923. That puts it firmly in the epicentre of the UK's coronavirus, and in fact, major steps towards a 'lockdown' have already started happening:
Affected people should be staying indoors
The government advice, from earlier this week, is that people living on their own with symptoms of coronavirus should be self isolating for seven days from when symptoms started. If you live with others and you are the first in the household to have symptoms, you must stay at home for seven days. All other household members who remain well must stay at home and not leave for 14 days (starting from the day when the first person in the house became ill).
The tube and other transport is partially shutting down
As reported this morning, TfL has announced drastic measures, with nine tube stations closed with immediate effect, and up to 40 of them potentially shutting shop soon. Many other cuts to London's public transport are happening soon. While it is unlikely that the entire network will close (Sadiq Khan says "ensuring the capital’s critical workers can move around the city will be crucial."), Londoners are now effectively not supposed to be using the tube or other forms of public transport, unless they absolutely have to.
Most cultural institutions have already closed
The entire West End, and most of London's major cultural institutions have shut their doors this week — giving Londoners fewer reasons to leave the house. Royal Parks and National Trust, however, have been keen to keep parks and gardens open.
Schools close on Friday
As per the Prime Minister's press briefing on Wednesday, all schools across the UK (including London) will close indefinietly on Friday 20 March.
The army is being deployed
20,000 members of the army are already on standby across the UK, and a number of these are in London. It's important to note that their main role is as a "covid support force", helping out with logistics — everything from traffic to makeshift hospitals.
What does the prime minister say?
Boris Johnson has, as yet, refused to compulsorily shut establishments such as restaurants and pubs, as many other Covid-19-affected countries have already done. His advice, however, is for people to stay away from them. Though he seems reluctant to tell Londoners what to do, Johnson has recently admitted at his daily press briefings that more stringent measures could be on the cards:
I think a lot of people are making a real heroic effort to comply with the advice that we have given but as I’ve said tonight and in the past few days we keep everything under continuous review and we will not hesitate to bring forward further and faster measures where we think that is necessary.
More recently (19 March) Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, has refused to rule out a London lockdown by the weekend.
What other measures could be enforced?
Most Londoners should now be working from home (if it's at all possible for them to do so) and are hopefully staying away from pubs, restaurants and other cultural institutions. So we're already effectively in partial lockdown. An Emergency Coronavirus Bill (with police powers to arrest and isolate people) is being tabled.
The government has clarified what a lockdown might mean in a briefing to the press. Or more specifically it would not mean a lockdown on movement limits, as has been seen in mainland Europe. Nor would it mean that people would be unable to enter or leave the capital, and key workers would not have to present papers to prove their status. Instead a lockdown is likely to mean the forced closure of pubs, cafes, restaurant and all non-essential shops. However, presently that is still not the government advice.
Keep up to date on all the latest London coronavirus news here.
