Coronavirus latest: Boris Johnson announces new UK measures including stopping non-essential contact and travel

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that “now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and to stop all non-essential travel” as he urged people to work from home and avoid pubs, clubs and theatres.

Mr Johnson set out the need for “drastic action” to tackle the “fast growth” of coronavirus in the first daily press conference amid the outbreak.

The Prime Minister said that according to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) “it looks as though we are now approaching the fast growth part of the upward curve” in the number of cases.

“Without drastic action cases could double every five or six days,” he said.

Mr Johnson said “if you or anyone in your household” had one of the two symptoms – a high temperature or continuous cough – “you should stay at home for 14 days”.

“That means that if possible you should not go out, even to buy food or essentials, other than for exercise and in that case at a safe distance from others,” he said.

In a dramatic escalation of the Government’s response, Mr Johnson said that even those without symptoms needed to take extra action.

“Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel,” he said.

Mr Johnson said that from Tuesday the Government would no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers.

Mass gatherings are something “we are now moving emphatically away from”, he said.

The Prime Minister said people should start working from home “where they possibly can”.

“You should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues,” he said.

Mr Johnson said by the weekend, groups particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 will be asked to stay at home for 12 weeks.

He said: “In a few days time, by this coming weekend it will be necessary to go further and to ensure that those with the most serious health conditions are largely shielded from social contact for around 12-weeks.

“Again, the reason for doing this in the next few days rather than earlier or later is that this is going to be very disruptive for people who have such conditions.”

Mr Johnson added: “This advice about avoiding all social contact is particularly important for people over 70, for pregnant women and for those with some health conditions.”

He also said: “We want to ensure that this period of shielding, this period of maximum protection, coincides with the peak of the disease and it is now clear that the peak of the epidemic is coming faster in some parts of the country than in others.

“And it looks as though London is now a few weeks ahead.”

Mr Johnson said that it is “important that Londoners now pay special attention about avoiding non-essential contact and to take particularly seriously the advice about working from home and avoiding confined spaces such as pubs and restaurants”.

He added: “Lastly, it remains true – as we said in the last few weeks – that this sort of transmissions of the disease at mass gatherings such as sporting events are relatively low, but obviously, logically, as we advise against unnecessary social contact of all kinds, it’s right that we should extend that advice to mass gatherings as well.

“And so we’ve also got to ensure that we have the critical workers we need that might otherwise be deployed for those gatherings, to deal with those emergencies.

“So from tomorrow we will no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers in the way that we normally do.”

Chief medical officer for England professor Chris Whitty said measures to tackle the spread of the disease would need to be in place for a “prolonged period”.

He said experts had examined the proposals – looking at mathematical models and behavioural sciences – to find the measures which were the most effective but were also sustainable.

“This is going to go on for some time,” he said. “We should not be under any illusions that ‘if we just do this for a couple of weeks that is sufficient’.

“This is going to have to be a prolonged period.”

The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the latest measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 would have a “big effect”.

“This is not a series of small interventions. You would anticipate that this could have a dramatic effect to reduce the peak and to reduce death rates,” he said.

“They are not easy but they are important and they will have the effect if we all do it.

“This is a matter for us to take accountability to make sure we help each other, protect ourselves and protect the NHS.”