Indoor team sport is being banned in England again as coronavirus restrictions are tightened following the surge in infections.
Activities including five-a-side football will no longer be allowed from Thursday – as the exemption under the ‘rule of six’ law is removed, Boris Johnson announced.
The move will allow sport to continue outdoors – where the risk of transmission is lower – although the government is not ruling out a further crackdown, if necessary.
In a statement to MPs, the prime minister warned coronavirus would “spread faster as autumn becomes winter”, adding: “This is the moment where we must act.”
He also announced that face coverings will be compulsory for staff working in pubs, restaurants and shops, along with taxis and private hire vehicles.
And he confirmed that staff will no longer be told to go back to the workplace to save the economy – as he urged last month – in another government U-turn.
Crucially, Mr Johnson warned the public to expect the fresh restrictions to “remain in place for perhaps six months”, long past Christmas.
And he said: “We reserve the right to deploy further firepower, with significantly greater restrictions.”
Keir Starmer gave Labour’s backing, but said the new crackdown had not been “inevitable”, saying: “We warned the prime minister months ago that testing needed to be fixed by the autumn.”
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As expected, the new shutdown will, in England, include pubs, bars and restaurants ordered to close by 10pm from Thursday and required to offer table service only.
Police will be able to issue £1,000 fines and make arrests to enforce two-metre social distancing, as Covid-19 cases double each week across the UK.
From Monday, the maximum number of people allowed to attend a wedding in England will be slashed to 15 – but the government has stopped short of banning household mixing, for now.
Mr Johnson, facing resistant Tory MPs, argued the crackdown was “by no means a return to full lockdown”, with schools and businesses staying open.
He said: “No British government would wish to stifle our freedoms in the ways that we have found necessary this year.
“Yet even now we can draw some comfort from the fact schools, universities, and places of worship are staying open, shops can serve their customers, construction workers can go to building sites and the vast majority of the UK economy can continue moving forwards.
“We’re also better prepared for a second wave with ventilators and PPE, the dexamethasone, the Nightingale hospitals and hundred times as much testing as we began this epidemic with.”
