UK extends emergency coronavirus powers by six months

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers agreed Thursday to prolong coronavirus emergency measures for six months, allowing the Conservative government to keep its unprecedented powers to restrict United Kingdom citizens’ everyday lives.

The House of Commons voted to extend the powers until September and approved the government’s road map for gradually easing Britain’s strict coronavirus lockdown over the next three months.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s large Conservative majority in Parliament guaranteed the measures passed by a decisive 484-76 margin.

But Johnson faced rebellion from some of his own party’s lawmakers, who argued that the economic, democratic, and human costs of the restrictions outweigh the benefits.

The Coronavirus Act, passed a year ago as Britain went into lockdown, brought in a wide range of temporary health, economic and social powers to deal with the pandemic.

It gives authorities the power to bar protests, shut down businesses, restrict travel and detain people suspected of having the virus.

Heath Secretary Matt Hancock said Parliament had to take “extraordinary measures in response to this extraordinary threat.”

But Conservative lawmaker Mark Harper, a leading lockdown sceptic, said he had not “heard a single good answer” as to why the British government needed to extend the “draconian” powers for another six months.

The opposition Liberal Democrats opposed the extension, with leader Ed Davey saying it gave ministers “a blank check to use draconian powers they don’t need.”

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also spoke out against them, saying “our liberties are at stake.”

Britain has recorded more than 126,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe.

But the UK’s fast-moving vaccination program has so far given at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than half of its adult population, a far better record than the European Union’s much-criticised vaccine rollout.

Virus infections and deaths in Britain have fallen sharply in the last month even as they are rising in much of Europe.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service in England, said Thursday that English hospitals were treating about 4,000 coronavirus patients, down from 34,000 in mid-January.

He said the health system’s coronavirus alert level should be lowered from 4 to 3 on a five-point scale because the pressures on the system had eased.

The British government is gradually lifting a national lockdown. Children returned to school on March 8 and shops, hairdressers and outdoor dining are to reopen on April 12, followed by indoor venues on May 17.

Remaining restrictions are to end June 21, if the country is not facing a new virus surge.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.