UK pubs and restaurants told to shut in virus fight

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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 told to close "as soon as they reasonably can".

Mr Johnson said the situation would be reviewed each month.

The chancellor 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.

There have been 167 deaths in England from the coronavirus outbreak, as well as six in Scotland, three in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at a daily Downing Street press briefing, Mr Johnson said the measures would be enforced "strictly" and that licensing arrangements would make doing so "relatively simple".

He urged people not to go out on Friday night ahead of the closures, stressing: "For now, at least physically, we need to keep people apart."

The prime minister added: "The more effectively we follow the advice we are given, the faster this country will stage both a medical and an economic recovery in full."

Speaking at the same briefing, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the new measures to help employees out of work were "unprecedented".

He appealed to employers to stand by their workers during the coronavirus crisis, in the wake of many firms warning of collapse.

England's deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, told reporters at the briefing that the government was not advising people against going outside.

"We are saying, if you are going to go outside, go in a way that reduces your social contact," she said.

In a separate televised address, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also asked all restaurants, cafes, pubs and cinemas to close.

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster backed Mr Johnson's latest announcement, saying: "This is for the community's protection."

The new measures come after Mr Johnson said on Thursday that the UK could "turn the tide" on the coronavirus outbreak within 12 weeks.

He reiterated on Friday that the government does not want to "immobilise the Tube or our major transport networks", which he said were "too important for the delivery of crucial public services".

The decision to tell pubs, restaurants and other public places to close was welcomed by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who previously criticised the government's response to the outbreak.