Coronavirus «Strengthened» the Autonomy of British Regions

Abstract

The United Kingdom turned out to be unprepared for the rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and already in early May 2020 took second place in the world after the United States in the number of deaths from it. B. Johnson’s government underestimated the scale of the threat and did not react immediately. COBRA which coordinates the actions of government bodies in response to national or regional crisis on January 24, 2020 stated that the country was prepared for any new disease, but the epidemic was spreading rapidly. On March 23, the British government was forced to impose a lockdown in the country, but the time to contain COVID-19 was lost. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales took a more serious approach to solving the problem and, after consulting with the B. Johnson government, developed their own measures to combat the epidemic. They adopted a series of local laws that imposed the necessary administrative restrictions, as well as published guidelines for various categories of the population to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Due to the fact that England began to weaken the lockdown earlier, significant differences between it and the regions arose.

Keywords

• covid-19
• the uk
• scotland
• northern ireland
• wales
• statistics