to fece covid the government increases police controls
During the Easter weekend, the police will increase the controls and the military will patrol the beaches.
During Easter weekend, Britain will not stop to fight against Covid-19 by breaking strict lockdown rules. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, standing in for the Prime Minister, urged restraint amid signs social-distancing was beginning to work. But with the holiday season, police warned they were ready to take action against those who flout the rules and military are ready to patrol beaches. One police chief even warned his force was only “a few days away” from imposing roadblocks.
The Devon & Cornwall force also said it would be patrolling the M5 motorway on the Somerset and Devon border to keep tourists away from the area. Military Defence Police, based in Portsmouth and Plymouth, will be operating along the coastlines in Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall to ensure people ‘do not gather unnecessarily’.
Downing Street said police would have the “full support” of Government in enforcing the Covid-19 lockdown at this “critical juncture”. Northamptonshire chief constable Nick Adderley said that if we don’t get the compliance we would expect, then the next stage will be roadblocks and it will be stopping people to ask why they are going, where they’re going.
Cheshire Police and the Avon and Somerset force said they would have more police on the roads. Then Supt Glyn Fernquest, of Gwent Police, warned that they will be stepping up our response to enforcement. There can be no excuses. Government officials are now confident that new Covid-19 infections are starting to level off. But as Prime Minister spent his fifth night in hospital, Mr Raab said it was too soon to begin lifting the measures brought in almost three weeks ago.
Saying the Government would not even begin re-assessing the lockdown until the end of next week, he urged the public to think “long and hard” about the impact on heroic NHS staff if they ignored the rules. It can ruin every single steps about this fighting. Apologizing that people would not be able to spend time with their families over Easter he added: “Deaths are still rising. It’s too early to lift the measures that we put in place.”
The warnings come as new figures showed the number of hospital patients who have died after testing positive rose 881 to 7,978. But the rate of new infections have slowed and officials are confident lockdown is working. Sources say they now believe Brits with Covid-19 are infecting on average less than one person each. New daily confirmed cases fell to 4,344 yesterday, a significant drop from 5,492 the previous day. This had been falling with 3,634 on Tuesday, 3,802 on Monday, down from the peak of 5,903 on Sunday.