Coronavirus lockdown: Office workers to be last to return to work
Offices will likely have to wait several more months to open as the government prepares to next week unveil its roadmap to ease the coronavirus lockdown.
Boris Johnson will announce the government’s strategy for easing coronavirus social distancing measures at the end of the week.
The Sunday Times reports that sectors such as construction, and other jobs that cannot be done from home, will be advised to return to their workplaces as early as 25 May.
Office staff are expected to be told to continue to work from home for several more months still, while the last businesses to be opened will be pubs, restaurants and theatres.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that primary schools could open by the start of June.
Downing Street’s plan is to slowly open up the economy, while keeping the reproduction rate, R, of the coronavirus outbreak to below one.
If the reproduction rate is one then it means every coronavirus carrier will infect one other person.
Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance said on Thursday that the UK’s R was between 0.6 and 0.9, after being as high as three at the start of the outbreak.
A part of the plan could be to force people to wear face coverings while out in public, particularly on public transport.
A senior government source told the Times that the government was prepared to overturn some of its coronavirus exit strategy if infections started to rise again.
“If you get spikes and outbreaks, you get in there and you deal with it,” they said.
“We will lift together but if you suddenly get a particular nightmare in one area you intervene to lock down harder.”
A new poll from YouGov/Sunday Times showed just 25 per cent of people felt safe returning to work in the next few weeks, while 49 per cent said they wanted the government to set out a plan to end the lockdown.
The same poll found 67 per cent of people thought the government had prepared badly for the pandemic, but the government still had a +28 per cent approval rating for how well it was handling the outbreak.
An Opinium poll saw the government’s get a +13 per cent approval rating for how it has handled the crisis – a seven-week low.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News today that Labour wanted to see more transparency from Downing Street.
“I do welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has indicated that he has listened to what we’ve been saying about publishing an exit strategy and that is going to be extremely important,” he said.
“It is going to be important to be open with the public, who have made so many sacrifices in recent weeks, as to what the future now might hold but also for our frontline public services so that they can plan for the various scenarios that are going to come in the next few weeks.”