Watch Boris Johnson's lockdown speech in full | ITV News — Transcript

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1. 0:00it is now almost two months since the
2. 0:02people of this country began to put up
3. 0:04with restrictions on their freedom your
4. 0:07freedom of a kind that we have never
5. 0:09seen before in peace or war and you have
6. 0:13shown that good sense to support those
7. 0:15rules overwhelmingly you've put up with
8. 0:17all the hardships of that program of
9. 0:20social distancing because you understand
10. 0:22that asking stat and as the experience
11. 0:26of every other country has shown it's
12. 0:28the only way to defeat the coronavirus
13. 0:30the most vicious threat this country has
14. 0:33faced in my lifetime and though the
15. 0:36death toll has been tragic and the
16. 0:38suffering immense and though we grieve
17. 0:41for all those we have lost it is a fact
18. 0:45that by adopting those measures we
19. 0:47prevented this country from being
20. 0:49engulfed by what could have been a
21. 0:51catastrophe in which the reasonable
22. 0:54worst-case scenario was half a million
23. 0:57fatalities and it's thanks to your
24. 0:59effort and sacrifice in stopping the
25. 1:02spread of this disease that the death
26. 1:04rate is coming down and hospital
27. 1:06admissions are coming down and thanks to
28. 1:09you we've protected our NHS and saved
29. 1:13many thousands of lives and so I know
30. 1:16you know that it would be madness now to
31. 1:19throw away that achievement by allowing
32. 1:21a second spike we must stay alert we
33. 1:25must continue to control the virus and
34. 1:28save lives and yet we must also
35. 1:31recognize that this campaign against the
36. 1:34virus has come at colossal cost to our
37. 1:37way of life we can see it all around us
38. 1:40in the shuttered shops and abandoned
39. 1:42businesses and darkened pubs and
40. 1:44restaurants and there are millions of
41. 1:46people who are both fearful of this
42. 1:49terrible disease and at the same time
43. 1:52also fearful of what this long period of
44. 1:56enforced inactivity will do to their
45. 1:59livelihoods and their mental and
46. 2:01physical well-being to their futures and
47. 2:04the futures of their children so I want
48. 2:09to provide tonight for you
49. 2:12the shape of a plan to address both
50. 2:15fears both to beat the virus and provide
51. 2:19the first sketch of a roadmap for
52. 2:22reopening society a sense of the way
53. 2:26ahead and when and how and on what basis
54. 2:31we will take the decisions to proceed
55. 2:35I'll be sending out more details in
56. 2:37Parliament tomorrow and taking questions
57. 2:40from the public in the evening I've
58. 2:43consulted across the political spectrum
59. 2:46across all four nations of the UK and
60. 2:49though different parts of the country
61. 2:52are experiencing the pandemic at
62. 2:54different rates and though it's right to
63. 2:56be flexible in our response I believe
64. 3:00that as Prime Minister of the United
65. 3:02Kingdom Scotland England Wales Northern
66. 3:05Ireland there is a strong resolve to
67. 3:09defeat this together
68. 3:10and today a general consensus on what we
69. 3:15could do and I stress could because
70. 3:20although we have a plan it is a
71. 3:22conditional plan and since our priority
72. 3:26is to protect the public and save lives
73. 3:29we cannot move forward unless we satisfy
74. 3:33the five tests we must protect our NHS
75. 3:36we must see sustained falls in the death
76. 3:40threat we must see sustained and
77. 3:42considerable falls in the rate of
78. 3:44infection we must sort out our
79. 3:46challenges in getting enough PPE to the
80. 3:49people who need it and yes
81. 3:51it's a global problem but we must fix it
82. 3:54and last we must make sure that any
83. 3:58measures we take do not force the
84. 4:02reproduction rate of the disease the are
85. 4:06back up over 1 so that we have the kind
86. 4:09of exponential growth we were facing a
87. 4:12few weeks ago and to chart our progress
88. 4:16and to avoid going back to square one
89. 4:19we're establishing a new Co vide alert
90. 4:22system run by a new joint
91. 4:25biosecurity Center and that co vid alert
92. 4:29level will be determined primarily by
93. 4:32our and the number of coronavirus cases
94. 4:35and in turn that kobe the alert level
95. 4:38will tell us how tough we have to be in
96. 4:41our social distancing measures the lower
97. 4:44the level the few of the measures the
98. 4:46higher the level the tougher and
99. 4:48stricter we will have to be there will
100. 4:51be five alert levels level one means the
101. 4:56disease is no longer present in the UK
102. 4:58and level five is the most critical the
103. 5:03kind of situation we could have had if
104. 5:05the NHS had been overwhelmed over the
105. 5:09period of the lockdown we've been in
106. 5:11level four and it's thanks to your
107. 5:14sacrifice were now in a position to
108. 5:16begin to move in steps to level three
109. 5:20and as we go everyone will have a role
110. 5:23to play in keeping the order by staying
111. 5:26alert and following the rules and to
112. 5:29keep pushing the number of infections
113. 5:31done there are two more things we must
114. 5:35do we must reverse rapidly the awful
115. 5:39epidemics in care homes and in the NHS
116. 5:42and though the numbers are coming down
117. 5:44sharply now there is plainly much more
118. 5:48to be done and if were to control this
119. 5:50virus then we must have a world-beating
120. 5:53system the testing potential victims and
121. 5:57for tracing their contacts so that all
122. 6:01told we are testing literally hundreds
123. 6:05of thousands of people every day we've
124. 6:08made fast progress on testing but there
125. 6:11is so much more to do now and we can
126. 6:16when this began we hadn't seen this
127. 6:20disease before and we didn't fully
128. 6:22understand its effects with every day
129. 6:24we're getting more and more data we're
130. 6:26shining the light of science on this
131. 6:29invisible killer and we will pick it up
132. 6:31where it strikes because our new system
133. 6:35will be able in time to detect
134. 6:38local flare-ups in your area as well as
135. 6:41giving us a national picture and yet
136. 6:45when I look at where we are tonight we
137. 6:47have the are below one between 0.5 and
138. 6:52point 9 but potentially only just below
139. 6:561 and though we have made progress in
140. 6:59satisfying at least some of the
141. 7:02conditions I have given we have by no
142. 7:04means fulfilled all of them and so no
143. 7:08this is not the time simply to end the
144. 7:12lockdown this week instead we're taking
145. 7:15the first careful steps to modify our
146. 7:18measures and the first step is a change
147. 7:21of emphasis that we hope that people
148. 7:23will act on this week we said that you
149. 7:28should work from home if you can and
150. 7:30only go to work if you must
151. 7:34we now need to stress that anyone who
152. 7:37can't work from home for instance those
153. 7:39in construction or manufacturing should
154. 7:43be actively encouraged to go to work and
155. 7:45we want it to be safe for you to get to
156. 7:47work so you should avoid public
157. 7:50transport if at all possible because we
158. 7:53must and will maintain social distancing
159. 7:57and capacity will therefore be limited
160. 7:59so work from home if you can but you
161. 8:03should go to work if you can't work from
162. 8:06home and to ensure your safer work we've
163. 8:09been working to establish new guidance
164. 8:11for employers to make workplaces couvade
165. 8:14secure and when you do go to work if
166. 8:17possible do so by car or even better by
167. 8:22walking or bicycle but just as with
168. 8:25workplaces public transport operators
169. 8:27will also be following coded secure
170. 8:31standards and from this Wednesday we
171. 8:34want to encourage people to take more
172. 8:36and even unlimited amounts of an outdoor
173. 8:39exercise you can sit in the Sun in your
174. 8:41local park you can drive to other
175. 8:44destinations you can even play sports
176. 8:46only with members of your own hustle you
177. 8:49must obey the rule
178. 8:51on social distancing and to enforce
179. 8:54those rules we will increase the fines
180. 8:57for the small minority who break them
181. 9:00and so every day with ever-increasing
182. 9:04data we will be monitoring the are and
183. 9:08the number of new infections and the
184. 9:10progress we are making and if we as a
185. 9:14nation begin to fulfill the conditions I
186. 9:16have set out then the next few weeks and
187. 9:19months we may be able to go further in
188. 9:24step two of the earliest by June the
189. 9:27first after half turn we believe we may
190. 9:30be in a position to begin the phased
191. 9:32reopening of shops and to get primary
192. 9:37pupils back into schools in stages
193. 9:39beginning with reception year one and
194. 9:42year six our ambition is that secondary
195. 9:46pupils facing exams next year will get
196. 9:49at least some time with their teachers
197. 9:51before the holidays more shortly be
198. 9:53setting out detailed guidance on how to
199. 9:56make it work in schools and shops and on
200. 9:59transport and step three are the
201. 10:02earliest by July and subject to all
202. 10:05these conditions and further scientific
203. 10:09advice if and only if the numbers
204. 10:12supported we will hope to reopen at
205. 10:15least some of the hospitality industry
206. 10:17and other public places provided they're
207. 10:20safe and enforce social distancing
208. 10:24throughout this period of the next two
209. 10:26months we will be driven not by mere
210. 10:29hope or economic necessity we're going
211. 10:33to be driven by the science the data and
212. 10:35public health and I must stress again
213. 10:39that all of this is conditional it all
214. 10:42depends on a series of big IFS
215. 10:44it depends on all of us the entire
216. 10:46country to follow the advice to observe
217. 10:49social distancing and to keep that are
218. 10:52down and to prevent reinfection from
219. 10:56abroad I am serving notice that it will
220. 10:59soon be the time with transmission
221. 11:02significantly lower
222. 11:04pose quarantine on people coming into
223. 11:06this country by air and it's because of
224. 11:08your efforts to get the are down and the
225. 11:11number of infections down here that this
226. 11:14measure will now be effective and of
227. 11:18course we will be monitoring our
228. 11:20progress locally regionally and
229. 11:23nationally and if there are outbreaks if
230. 11:26there are problems we will not hesitate
231. 11:28to put on the brakes we've been through
232. 11:32the initial peak but it's coming down
233. 11:36the mountain that is often more
234. 11:40dangerous we have a route and we have a
235. 11:43plan and everyone in government has the
236. 11:46all-consuming pressure and challenge to
237. 11:48save lives restore livelihoods and
238. 11:50gradually restore the freedoms that we
239. 11:53need but in the end this is a plan that
240. 11:55everyone must make work and when I look
241. 11:58at what you've done already the patience
242. 12:00and common sense you've shown the
243. 12:02fortitude of the elderly whose isolation
244. 12:05we all want to end as fast as we can the
245. 12:09incredible bravery and hard work of our
246. 12:11NHS staff our care workers the devotion
247. 12:14and self-sacrifice of all those in every
248. 12:18walk of life who are helping us to beat
249. 12:20this disease police bus drivers train
250. 12:22drivers pharmacist Supermarket workers
251. 12:24Road hauliers bin collectors cleaners
252. 12:27security guards postal workers our
253. 12:29teachers and a thousand more the
254. 12:32scientists who are working around the
255. 12:34clock to find a vaccine when I think of
256. 12:38the millions of everyday acts of
257. 12:40kindness and thoughtfulness that are
258. 12:42being performed across this country and
259. 12:44that have helped to get us through this
260. 12:46first phase I know that we can use this
261. 12:50plan to get us through the next and if
262. 12:54we can't do it by those dates and if the
263. 12:57alert level won't allow it we will
264. 12:59simply wait and go on until we've got it
265. 13:02right we will come back from this
266. 13:05devilish illness we will come back to
267. 13:08health and robust health and there the
268. 13:11UK will be changed by this experience I
269. 13:13believe we could be stronger and better
270. 13:15than ever
271. 13:16before more resilient more innovative
272. 13:18more economically dynamic but also more
273. 13:22generous and more sharing but for now we
274. 13:27must stay alert control the virus and
275. 13:31save lives thank you very much
276. 13:42you