Boris Johnson defends government’s new ‘stay alert’ coronavirus slogan
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tonight defended the government’s new “stay alert” message in the face of criticism it was unclear.
Johnson, in answer to questions from the public and the media, said the clarity of the government’s previous “stay at home” message was difficult to emulate as the UK begins to return to work.
Pooja from Solihull, a member of the public, said Johnson’s broadcast yesterday on the government’s new strategy “left the nation with more questions than answers”.
Johnson said that as the UK takes “small steps back to normality… the message becomes finer and more complicated”.
In reply to another question on the clarity of the government’s new message, Johnson referenced the French government’s new slogan “Sauvez des vies, restez prudents”, which translates as: “Save lives, be careful”.
“For those who think that…’stay alert’ is not the right message, I think it’s absolutely the right message for our country now…just today in France they have gone for a slogan…which is roughly the same sort of thing as our message and I think it’s the right way to go,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the government’s message remained broadly the same, but with a change in emphasis.
“If you can’t work from home you should talk to your employer about getting back to work,” he said.
“We are also making some changes this week about exercise…other than that things are pretty much as they have been,” Johnson said.
Yesterday the government announced that from Wednesday people would be able to take unlimited exercise outdoors.
From Wednesday people will also be able to sit down in parks and meet one member of another household outside as long as they comply with social distancing measures.
The government also encouraged workers who could not do their jobs from home to begin to return to work where it was safe to do so.