All kids’ playgrounds and outdoor gyms across the UK will be shut in a coronavirus lockdown.
Boris Johnson announced the closures tonight in a landmark speech that will change the lives of everyone in Britain.
The Prime Minister revealed all parks would remain open, but play areas and services would be forced to shut.
He said: “To ensure compliance with the Government’s instruction to stay at home, we will immediately:
“Close all shops selling non-essential goods, including clothing and electronic stores and other premises including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms, and places of worship;
“We will stop all gatherings of more than two people in public – excluding people you live with.
“And we’ll stop all social events, including weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals.”
Playground and all communal exercise areas are to shut but parks will remain open.
The ban is aimed at stopping kids who are now off school playing together outside.
The draconian measures which will change every aspect of Brits’ lives included:
- All gatherings of more than two people in public were forbidden – meaning a ban on all social events, including weddings and baptisms
- Tens of thousands of non-essential shops were ordered to close
- Communal play and exercise areas inside parks will also be shut down, but not parks themselves
- Places of worship such as churches and mosques must also shut, except to host for funerals
And travel on roads, trains and buses was also banned, unless it’s essential to get to work.
Anyone breaking the rules will be fined at least £30 – and up to £1,000 if they fail to self-isolate.
The PM explained Britain now needed to come together and follow the advice to save the NHS.
He said: “Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.
“And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic health care systems, that is the moment of real danger.
“To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to handle it – meaning more people are likely to die, not just from Coronavirus but from other illnesses as well.”
It follows in the footsteps of other European countries who cracked down on movement to battle the virus.
Chancellor Angela Merkel introduced the same measures in Germany, with breachers also hit with fines.
France has imposed some of the tightest controls in Europe on people’s movements for the past six days.
Italy banned travel within the country in yet another attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
It came as:
- An 18-year-old was thought to have become the youngest victim of the virus in Britain as the number of deaths in the UK rose to 335
- There are growing fears that Britain is on a similar trajectory to Italy – scene of the world’s worst outbreak – where the death toll passed 5,000 over the weekend
- The PM warned the NHS could be “overwhelmed” in the same way as the Italian healthcare system has been, if the spread of the virus in the UK is not curbed
- Trains were taken under government control this morning – with Brits able to get a refund on unused season tickets
- All McDonalds branches will be closed from tonight – along with Nando’s, Costa Coffee, John Lewis, Primark and Timpson
- Ministers will bring forward emergency laws to the Commons tonight giving the PM sweeping powers to fine people who don’t isolate
On Friday night, the PM ordered pubs and restaurants to close as part of efforts to encourage people to stay at home to fight the spread of Covid-19.
However many have remained open for takeaway service, leading to queues and groups of people sitting at cafes with outdoor tables.
