UK minister warns pubs of ‘shut down’, asks to follow rules amid COVID-19 surge

In a fresh warning due to the second coronavirus wave in the UK, health minister Matt Hancock asked the pubs and bars in a televised address to “follow the rules” or he will have to force them close due to non-compliance to the guidelines. Threatening that he will “not hesitate to shut down business”, Hancock said that the UK government wasn’t just “nicely asking”, but the country was on tipping point at the moment and it’s a mandate to follow the rules. Hancock’s comments came after reports of people flouting the rules on the ‘Super Saturday’ night at the pubs emerged. People were seen violating the public assembly protocol and social distancing measures outside the bars and alcohol-serving establishments. 

Speaking to the UK’s leading broadcaster, Sky, UK’s health minister said that while overall several people amid the pandemic have acted responsibly, the pictures related to the Saturday night proved contrary. Hancock said that although he was “overall pleased” with people’s generic behaviour, he would like to remind the business operations that the COVDI-19 restrictions “will get tougher” if rules were non-compliant. Earlier, the Boris Johnson administration announced the £10,000 penalty for not self-isolating in case an individual had tested positive with the novel coronavirus disease.

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Household gathering ban expected

Further, in a televised address, Hancock said that PM Johnson was considering imposing the indoor or the household gathering ban and slimming the operational hours for the pubs amid the recent upsurge of UK’s caseload and fatalities. “We have no choice,” he said in a live-streamed address to the citizens on TV. Also, in the 11:00 BST broadcast hosted by Andrew Marr on BBC, UK’s chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, and government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance warned that the UK was  “heading in the wrong direction" with the cases spiralling out of control. Whitty added, saying, that the country was in fact at an extremely "critical point” in the pandemic and the government was looking at the data to draft plans about effectively handling this virus ahead of the “very challenging” winters. 

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