generalspeaking

Britain in Lockdown, Soaring Death Rate, PM Johnson Recovering

"However warm the weather, however tempting your local beach or park, we need everyone to stay at home because in hospitals across the country, NHS [National Health Services] staff are battling day and night to keep desperately sick people breathing."
"The good news is that the government in his [Prime Minister Johnson] absence has been functioning very efficiently, very effectively."
"We don't have enough information yet to make any changes to the social distancing arrangements."
U.K. Health Minister Matt Hancock

"I was told he [Prime Minister Boris Johnson) was waving his thanks to all of the nurses and doctors he saw as  he was moved from the intensive care unit back to the ward."
"The hospital said that he was in extremely good spirits last night."
Prime Ministerial spokesman

"He must rest up."
"You cannot walk away from this and go straight back to Downing Street and pick up the reins without a period of re-adjustment."
Stanley Johnson, father, Boris Johnson

British leader Boris Johnson, 55, was the first world leader to be struck by the novel coronavirus. Now back on his feet once again, while recovering from a serious illness in contracting COVID-19. serious enough to see him admitted to hospital, then placed in the intensive care unit as his condition deteriorated, even while he rallied without intubation and the need for a respirator to help him breathe, he has a long, slow recovery ahead of him.


And while the Prime Minister has had the reins of government returned to him, after temporarily being filled by his second-in-command for several days, that coincided with the deadliest day yet reported during the pandemic, with 980 additional deaths, bringing the nation's death toll due to COVID, to close to 9,000. That rise exceeded even the deadliest day reported in Italy, the worst hit country in Europe.

After three nights of intensive care, and oxygen support in view of persistent COVID-19 symptoms, the Prime Minister is now in recovery mode, taking short walks and periods of rest, in an early stage of recovery. He will continue to rely heavily on his cabinet while he remains partially incapacitated until full recovery, but Britain fortunately missed losing their leader to a dread disease that is laying waste throughout the world, with no end yet in sight.

Now, as in the United States, while focused on controlling the viral outbreak, government leaders turn their attention to the state of the collapsed economy, anxious to see business ramped up again as society is re-opened and lockdown lifted. Authorities have warned the public that those who break the ban on social gatherings or venturing out of their homes without good reason will be clamped down on.

The death rate is anticipated to be ongoing for several days yet, while the death toll on April 9 reached 8,958, the fifth highest worldwide. And as authorities warn the public to heed lockdown rules or face strict punishment in arrests, hefty fines and even prison sentences, a senior government minister failed to adhere to the rules of the lockdown, as revealed by news sources, that he had travelled outside London to visit his parents.

"For clarity -- my parents asked me to deliver some essentials -- including medicines", Housing Minister Robert Jenrick explained. A reasonable enough explanation, and reasonably enough accepted by government: "We are confident that he complied with the social distancing rules", stated a spokesman for the Prime Minister. Matters have come to quite the pass when a mature man is unable to respond to his aged parents' request for help in accessing their prescribed medications. But if he can do it, why not anyone else?

Deserted streets around Piccadilly Circus in London on a Thursday evening last month. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Observer