Coronavirus protestors demanding action descend on Downing Street
Protesters wearing hazmat suits, masks and gloves descended on Downing Street on Monday to demand urgent action on the coronavirus pandemic.
Several members of the Pause the System group sat on the ground outside the gates of No 10 while others held a banner.
Armed police looked on as activists hung biohazard tape on the railings and staged a peaceful protest.
Boris Johnson has been criticised for his handling of the coronavirus crisis. He held his first televised briefing on Monday evening following a cabinet Cobra meeting.
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The peaceful group sat on the pavement to demand the UK to go into lockdown in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The group – which has informal links with Extinction Rebellion – claims that the government is not taking stringent enough action to “take care of the most vulnerable” and “prevent future pandemics’.
As well as calling for the UK to go into lockdown, the protesters urged the government to “halt all non-essential business and close schools”; take private clinics into public ownership and increase testing.
They also linked pandemics to factory farming and see the response to the outbreak as a way to implement measures to ease the climate crisis. The government has insisted its approach is based on the advice of experts but many have suggested schools should be shut and “social distancing” measures put in place.
On Monday, a video explaining the government's plan to stop coronavirus overwhelming the NHS went viral. In it podiatrist Robert Isaacs uses a bucket filled with water and a bottle with a hole in to demonstrate the reasoning behind the UK policy on coronavirus.
