Coronavirus: Londoners urged to avoid non-essential contact and work from home

Outbreak in capital 'a few weeks ahead' of other parts of UK, prime minister says as government response escalates dramatically

Boris Johnson has urged Londoners to work from home and avoid non essential contact after warning that the coronavirus outbreak in the capital is more advanced than in other areas of the UK.

Setting out the need for "drastic action" to tackle the "fast growth" of coronavirus, the prime minister urged those in the capital to pay particular attention to the measures laid out for the British public, which include avoiding “all unnecessary travel” and staying away from pubs, clubs, theatres and restaurants.

As part of the measures, anyone living in a household with somebody who has either a persistent cough or fever must now also isolate themselves for 14 days.

"That means that if possible you should not go out, even to buy food or essentials, other than for exercise and in that case at a safe distance from others," Mr Johnson said.

In a dramatic escalation of the government's response, Mr Johnson said that even those without symptoms needed to take extra action.

"Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel," he said.

Mr Johnson added: "We want to ensure that this period of shielding, this period of maximum protection, coincides with the peak of the disease 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."

The prime minister said that it is "important that Londoners now pay special attention 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".

Hospitals in the capital are braced for a wave of new cases, with the majority of the areas that have recorded the most coronavirus cases located either in London or in the commuter belt.

The prime minister added: "Lastly, it remains true - as we said in the last few weeks - that this sort of transmissions of the disease at mass gatherings such as sporting events are relatively low, but obviously, logically, as we advise against unnecessary social contact of all kinds, it's right that we should extend that advice to mass gatherings as well.

"And so we've also got to ensure that we have the critical workers we need that might otherwise be deployed for those gatherings, to deal with those emergencies.

"So from tomorrow we will no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers in the way that we normally do."

Additional reporting by agencies