LONDON (AP) – British lawmakers agreed on Thursday to extend emergency measures for coronavirus for six months, allowing the Conservative government to maintain its unprecedented powers to restrict the daily lives of UK citizens.
The House of Commons voted to extend powers until September and approved the government’s roadmap to gradually facilitate strict coronavirus blocking in Britain over the next three months.
The large Conservative majority of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Parliament secured the measures passed with a decisive margin of 484-76. But Johnson faced the rebellion of 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 when Britain closed, provided a wide range of temporary health, economic and social powers to deal with the pandemic. It gives authorities the power to ban protests, close businesses, restrict travel and detain people suspected of having the virus.
Heath’s secretary, Matt Hancock, said Parliament had had to take “extraordinary steps in response to this extraordinary threat”.
But Conservative lawmaker Mark Harper, a leading blockade skeptic, said he had not “heard a good response” about why the British government needed to extend “draconian” powers for another six months.
Opposition Liberal Democrats opposed the extension, and leader Ed Davey said he was giving ministers “a blank check to use draconian powers they don’t need.” Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn also spoke out against them and said “our freedoms are at stake”.
Britain has recorded more than 126,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest number in Europe. But the UK’s rapid vaccination program has so far yielded at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine in addition to half its adult population, a much better record than the much-criticized vaccine launch by the European Union.
Virus infections and deaths in Britain have dropped dramatically over the past month, although they are rising in much of Europe.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service of England, said on Thursday that English hospitals were treating around 4,000 coronavirus patients, up from 34,000 in mid-January. He said the alert level of the coronavirus in the healthcare system should be reduced from 4 to 3 on a five-point scale because the pressures on the system had been reduced.
The British government is gradually lifting a national blockade. The children returned to school on March 8 and the shops, hairdressers and open-air dining halls will reopen on April 12, followed by the covered premises on May 17. The remaining restrictions will end on June 21, if the country does not face a further rise in viruses.
Hancock said infections are likely to increase as society opens up, but thanks to vaccines that would not automatically mean more virus-related deaths. But he said it was still right to proceed with caution.
“We need to restore the freedoms we all love, but in a way that doesn’t put the (National Health Service) at risk,” he said.
Some lawmakers were concerned about suggestions that people in Britain may have to prove they have been vaccinated to travel, attend crowded events or even go to the pub. The government is studying proposals for “coronavirus status certificates” and says it will present its plans next month.
Johnson admitted there were “moral complexities” surrounding the proposal, as some people cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Restaurant and bar owners have harshly criticized the idea of “pub passports”. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality’s commercial body, said the idea was “simply unfeasible”.
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