The government has said it still has no plans to close schools, as it announced a series of “draconian” measures to limit people spreading coronavirus.
Despite rising concern among parents, the government has said it will not be closing schools – yet.
But the advice for adults had changed drastically with them being told to avoid public gatherings big and small.
At a press conference in Downing St, the Chief Scientific Officer Sir Patrick Vallance said: “It may be necessary to think about school closures, but those decisions need to be made at the right time.”
Boris Johnson said: “There is an argument about school closures.
“We think at the moment on balance it’s much better if we can keep schools open, for all sorts of reasons. But I appreciate again that this is something we need to keep under review.”
But minutes earlier Mr Johnson had said adults must stop “all non-essential social contact” to help contain the coronavirus, Boris Johnson has said.
Parents and teachers have been using Twitter to express concerns about the strategy.
Teacher Joanna Mills said: “So no mass gatherings, can’t go to pubs, clubs, theatres and people to work from home but apparently as a teacher I’m allowed to go to school and be around 500 children who I have no idea who and what they are coming into contact with.”
The government is now encouraging people to avoid public areas wherever possible.
Mr Johnson said: “We need people to start working from home where they possibly can and you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.”
He added: “Without drastic action, cases could double every four or five days.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Mr Johnson also said that as soon as one person in a household was infected that the whole home must now self isolate for 14 days.
Mr Johnson said the “very draconian” advice applies particularly to people over 70, pregnant women, and those with some health conditions
And he confirmed the country is “moving emphatically away from” mass gatherings.
“We are asking people to do something that is difficult and disruptive of their lives,” he said.
“And the right moment, as we’ve always said, is to do it when it’s most effective. When we think it can make the biggest difference to slowing the spread of the disease, reducing the number of victims, reducing the number of fatalities.”
Next weekend it will go even further and those with the most serious health conditions will need to be “largely shielded” from social contact for 12 weeks, the PM said.
The PM also warned Londoners about the spread of the virus.
(Image: PA)
Mr Johnson said: “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
“It’s important that Londoners now pay special attention to what we’re saying 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.”
It came after the UK government continued to step up planning to deal with the accelerating crisis.
The last few days have seen a rising criticism of the government’s strategy, which it says is based exclusively on scientific advice.
The World Health Organisation has said the best response is to “test, test, test”.
The UK has stepped up the number of tests it is carrying out, but is not testing based on geography of cases.
Cases in the UK rose by 171 to 1543 as of 9am – and the crisis has caused chaos for British businesses.
