Numerous non-essential businesses, who have been closed since March, can reopen from 15th June as the Government begins to ease the restrictive lockdown measures. As for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, their plans will be announced in the coming weeks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a plan to ease lockdown restrictions, confirming the reopening of outdoor markets and car showrooms as from 1st June. All other non-essential shops such as bookshops, furniture and clothes shops, can reopen a fortnight later. Leisure and hospitality venues such as pubs, concert halls and so on, will remain shut until at least 4th July when they will reopen partially. However, it is emphasised that the dates are not final, and it is possible to put back in case the virus spikes.
“In step two – at the earliest by June 1 – after half term – we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6,”
Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister
“And since our priority is to protect the public and save lives, we cannot move forward unless we satisfy the five tests. We must protect our NHS. We must see sustained falls in the death rate. We must see sustained and considerable falls in the rate of infection. We must sort out our challenges in getting enough PPE to the people who need it, and yes, it is a global problem but we must fix it.”
Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister
This news could be considered irresponsible by a number of retail employees. Many employees could be anxious about returning to work since they have been given little indication of what measures will be in place upon returning. Thus, getting in a customer service assistant’s shoes, it will be a real worry for them to get back to work after an insufficient announcement by the government. So far, the only concrete advice being provided by the PM is that shops should simply place a poster in their windows, indicating awareness and that they should store returned items for 72 hours before putting them back out on the shop floor. This will not be enough to comfort many worried employees.
On the other hand, plenty of UK citizens considered the UK lockdown unnecessary expressing envy towards Sweden’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In Sweden, parks, bars and restaurants remained open and no limits were placed on public transport. In addition, Sweden’s borders were open, preschools and grade schools left in session, while gyms and even some cinemas were still open. Gatherings which consisted of more than 50 people were banned, such as museums and sporting events that had been canceled. There have been some cases of restaurants being forced to close down after failing to observe social distancing requirements, but they were not fined, and would be able to reopen after passing an inspection.
As a result, Sweden seems to have succeeded in controlling the virus unlike many other countries around the world and have avoided locking down their economy. The death rate in Sweden is currently 22 per 100,000 people, the same as that of Ireland, which has been commended for its handling of the pandemic, and far better than that of Britain or France’s. According to the Swedish Government, mandatory orders were unnecessary since Swedes could be trusted to stay at home, follow social distancing protocols and to wash their hands in order to slow the spread of the virus.
“My respect for those who died, but we are doing something right here in Sweden. I’m not seeing very different statistics in many other countries, and I’m happy we didn’t go into lockdown. Life has to go on.”
Johan Mattsson, Swedish restaurant consultant
Nevertheless, throughout the crisis, there were intensive care units that had to deal with COVID-19 patients.
“We have 250 empty beds right now.”
Sweden’s minister of health and social affairs, Lena Hallengren (28/4/20)
The New York Times discovered that a number of countries undercounted COVID-19 deaths by the thousands, whereas in Sweden, they reported only 400 more deaths than expected between 9th March and 19th April, but this is not to say that Sweden has escaped consequences completely.
“Once you get into a lockdown, it’s difficult to get out of it. How do you reopen? When? Basically we are trying to do the same thing that most countries are doing — slow down the spread as much as possible. It’s just that we use slightly different tools than many other countries.”
Anders Tegnell, a Swedish epidemiologist, who was responsible for Sweden’s COVID-19 policy
According to Magdalena Andersson, “hairdressers, restaurants and hotels are less affected compared to other countries.” However, the Swedish economy was likely to shrink by 7% this year.
Looking at how well Sweden managed the crisis, we could say that the UK shops should not have closed down in the first place. If the UK had adopted similar methods of mass testing and tracing early on then the UK economy may have been spared from the harmful effects of lockdown. As long as the public continues to use their common sense while shopping, the reopening of the shops shouldn’t be too much of an issue. In my view, if the shops implement social distancing measures for customers to follow the risk of spreading the virus can be minimalised. Objectively, when shops eventually reopen in the UK it will be immensely beneficial for the economy. Nonetheless, people who will be returning to work need to be given further indication of what measures will be in place to protect them from COVID-19.
Sources:
Shops could reopen in UK from 1 June. (2020, May 11). Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-lockdown-shops-reopen-june-a9507661.html
‘Life has to go on’: How Sweden has faced the coronavirus without a lockdown. (2020, April 30). Retrieved from https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/04/29/sweden-coronavirus
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