UK minister says public transport network will be reduced to just 10% due to COVID-19

Even though UK is moving towards easing the nationwide lockdown amid COVID-19 scare, British MP has warned that public transport in country would be cut down to only ten per cent of its capacity in a bid to practice social distancing. Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has said that citizens would be encouraged to adhere to cycling and walking. Moreover, bus corridors, wider pavements will also be created using the government’s emergency fund of £250 million. 

According to reports, Shapps has said that the country aims to avoid overcrowding and it has posed ‘enormous logistical challenge’. According to him, with every bus, train entirely operational it ‘will not be enough’. The transport secretary also warned that moving life to normalcy after the outbreak will be ‘gradual’ instead of a ‘single leap to freedom’. 

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Five-stage warning system

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is all set to introduce five stages of warnings in the press conference on May 9. Moreover, according to Downing Street, he would also change the slogan ‘stay at home’ to ‘stay alert, control the virus and save lives’ that would define Britain’s fight with the COVID-19 outbreak. According to reports, the five-stage system would be administered by ‘joint biosecurity centre’ that will be responsible to detect the increase in coronavirus cases in the country and also regulating the seriousness of the measures taken by the government. 

The alert levels across UK are ranging from green (level one) to res (level five), British PM is expected to inform that the nation is now moving from level four to level three as the first wave of COVID-19 infections seems to close down. The nationwide lockdown in UK was placed on March 23 to curb the further spread of the highly contagious disease. According to UK law, the lockdown must be reviewed every three weeks and it was last reviewed on May 7 when the government did not announce any change. 

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(Image Source: AP)