A Third National Lockdown Has Been Announced As Coronavirus And Its New Variant Continues To Cause Rises In Cases
In a televised address at 8pm this evening (Monday), the PM urged people to follow the rules immediately amid surging cases and patient numbers.
Everyone in England must stay at home except for permitted reasons. All schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning until the middle of February. Scotland and Wales had earlier issued similar restrictions.
On Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row. A further 58,784 cases and an additional 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported, though deaths in Scotland were not recorded.
A summary below of the new rules in England
- People cannot leave their homes except for certain reasons, like the first lockdown last March
- These include essential medical needs, food shopping, exercise and work for those who cannot do so from home
- All schools and colleges will close to most pupils from Tuesday with remote learning until February half term
- Early years settings such as nurseries will stay open
- End-of-year exams will not take place this summer as normal
- Elsewhere, university students should not return to campuses and will be taught online
- Restaurants can continue to offer delivery for food, but takeaway alcohol will be banned
- Outdoor sports venues - such as golf courses, tennis courts and outside gyms - must close
- Amateur team sports are not allowed, but elite sport such as Premier League football can continue
With the health services facing severe pressure, the levels were upped to critical in the NHS coping with the increased Covid cases and some decisiveness was arguably well overdue. However, hopefully the logistics of the vaccine rollouts can be carried out competently and we can begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel. The Prime Minister alluded to this within his televised briefing but it remains to be seen if resources can be correctly distributed on this occasion.
For the Facilities Managers in the UK, new pressures may be faced as they have to once again react and respond to yet another changing situation. Building uses may change, some may close, but FMs will still be required to maintain and support the life of their facilities. Numerous buildings, particularly within the health services, will have to withstand the incredible demands placed upon them, whilst security and cleaning services may be pushed to the limits to ensure the safety of certain premises.
Either way the population will once again have to come together to ensure the situation we find ourselves in is defeated and our NHS, FMs and related support industries will once again be the heartbeat in ensuring a brighter future for us all.
