There is a lot of talk about what might happen when the lockdown on the city of London is lifted. After the Coronavirus scare, city officials should plan for any number of overwhelming situations as citizens and tourists take to the streets again.
The Tube is one of the major areas of concern as far as social distancing is concerned. There is no way that the Tube can run at capacity and carry passengers to all the places they still need to go if the order of social distancing is still in place. The Tube is small area where people are used to getting very close to one another.
Further, there is also major concern about the ability of the city police to enforce any restrictions placed on crowds and controlling measures. While these things may be of concern, city officials urge citizens to let them do the worrying.
Unfortunately, London is an extremely large city and preparing for the relaxation of social distancing measures may take longer than is currently going to be given. In other words, city officials may not have time to prepare for the various catastrophic situations which could occur when lockdown is lifted.
This worry stems from the fact that officials were given very little warning before the lockdown was announced to begin with. It seems only logical that they should assume the same for when it is lifted.
There are a ton of staff which have been furloughed from London’s network of public transportation as well. Bringing these staff in will take time and money. The city is simply not ready for that kind of leap.
The city government is set to meet by May 7 to determine whether lockdown should be relaxed and lay out social distancing guidelines for citizens and visitors within the city.
Aside from transportation, crime is expected to rise significantly upon the lifting of the lockdown. Crowd management is likely the biggest cause for concern for police and emergency responders. Still, many other types of crime are liable to return as well taking away attention from officials who could be helping matters related to Covid-19.
Futher, reopening schools is another major concern. All of these decisions seem to be rushed, when accomplishing the reopening of the city to this status might take at least a month of planning and preparation.
Before any decisions can be announced, the public needs to be made aware of the expectations regarding precautions they will be required to adhere to. For example, if masks will be required, citizens need time to procure such materials.
Efforts to find a vaccine for the virus are still underway. Tej Kohli recently granted an emergency grant to help fund the cause for finding an effective vaccine.
While measures are full steam ahead, the city still has a long way to go before it is ready to say that it has recovered from the Covid-19 crisis of 2020.
In fact, many planners are concerned that relaxing the social distancing laws is only going to complicate the issues.
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