LONDON (PA) – British lawmakers agreed on Thursday to extend emergency measures for coronavirus for six months, allowing the Conservative government to retain its unprecedented powers to restrict the daily lives of British citizens.
The House of Commons voted to extend powers until September and approved the government’s roadmap to gradually ease the strict blockade of coronavirus in the UK over the next three months.
The Conservative majority of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Parliament guaranteed the measures adopted by a decisive margin of 484-76. But Johnson faced the rebellion of some of his party’s lawmakers, who argued that the economic, democratic and human costs of the restrictions outweighed the benefits.
The Coronavirus Act, passed a year ago as the UK entered the blockade, has brought a wide range of temporary health, economic and social powers to deal with the pandemic. It gives the authorities the power to ban protests, close businesses, restrict travel and detain people suspected of having the virus.
Heath Secretary Matt Hancock said Parliament had to take “extraordinary steps in response to this extraordinary threat”.
But Conservative lawmaker Mark Harper, a major blockade skeptic, said he had “not heard a good answer” as to why the British government had to extend its “draconian” powers for another six months.
Opposition Liberal Democrats opposed the expansion, with leader Ed Davey saying he had given ministers “an incomplete check to use draconian powers they don’t need.” Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn also spoke out against them, saying “our freedoms are at stake”.
The UK has recorded more than 126,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest number in Europe. But the UK’s rapid vaccination program has so far provided at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to more than half of its adult population, a much better record than the much-criticized launch of vaccines in the European Union.
Virus infections and deaths in the UK have fallen sharply in the last month, even though they are rising in much of Europe.
Simon Stevens, executive director of the National Health Service in England, said on Thursday that English hospitals were treating about 4,000 coronavirus patients, down from 34,000 in mid-January. He said the alert level of the coronavirus health system should be reduced from 4 to 3 on a five-point scale as pressures on the system have diminished.
The British government is gradually lifting a national blockade. The children returned to school on March 8, and the shops, hairdressers and open-air restaurants will reopen on April 12, followed by the indoor seats on May 17. The remaining restrictions are due to end on June 21, unless the country faces a new rise in the virus.
Hancock said the infections are likely to increase as the company opens, but because of vaccines that would not automatically mean more virus-related deaths. But he said it was still fair to proceed with caution.
“We must restore the freedoms we all cherish, but in a way that does not endanger (the National Health Service),” he said.
Some lawmakers were worried about suggestions that people in the UK should show that they had been vaccinated to travel, to attend mass events or even to go to the pub. The government is studying proposals for “coronavirus status certificates” and says it will present plans next month.
Johnson acknowledged that there are “moral complexities” surrounding the proposal, as some people cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
The idea of ”pub passports” has been strongly criticized by restaurant and bar owners. Kate Nicholls, executive director of UKHospitality, said the idea was “simply unfeasible”.
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