Cafes, pubs and restaurants must close from Friday night, except for take-away food, to tackle coronavirus, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
All the UK’s nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres have also been asked to close “as soon as they reasonably can”.
Mr Johnson said the situation will be reviewed each month.
The chancellor Rishi Sunak has said the government will pay 80% of wages for employees who are not working, up to £2,500 a month.
The announcement about closures follows similar measures taken in other countries – including in Ireland, where pubs and bars were asked to close from last Sunday.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel.
Geopolitically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2016, 4.8 million people live in the Republic of Ireland, and 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.
A strong Irish culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language. The island’s culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, and golf.
Rish Sunak is a British Conservative Party MP, who was originally elected as a Member of Parliament in the Richmond (Yorks) constituency in 2015.
His father-in-law is billionaire founder of Indian IT giant, Infosys, NR Narayana Murthy.
Sunak experienced a meteoric rise, first to be selected for the “safest” Conservative seat in the UK, he would later become the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer in under five years.
