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Cyclist inHyde Park (picture copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk)Updated: Health secretary says no plans to ban cycling and other exercise - after suggesting earlier that it might be
Updated: Health secretary Matt Hancock has said this evening that the government is not looking at stopping people from exercising outdoors – having suggested this morning that it would do just that due to people ignoring government advice on staying at home and social distancing.
Delivering the government’s daily update on the coronavirus pandemic, Hancock said that there were no plans to toughen up restrictions on people exercising outdoors, reports the Guardian.
“What we are doing is being absolutely clear that the current rules must be followed,” he explained.
Dr Jenny Harries, the government’s deputy chief medical officer, added: “It is not just what you are doing but how you are doing it.
“If you are sitting on a park bench, people tend to accumulate - it is very difficult to prevent that.
“Having rules where we are getting all of the benefits and minimising the risks and harms is an important approach to maintain.
“We have set those rules, we are enforcing against those rules and we will reiterate those rules, because that is the best way to be able to bend the curve down and stop the spread of the virus.”
Earlier today, Hancock had suggested that people’s right to exercise outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic may be ended if government rules are not followed, saying it was “quite unbelievable” how some people ignored official guidelines yesterday to sunbathe in parks.
Under current regulations aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, people are allowed to leave their homes to undertake one form of exercise, including cycling, each day, provided it is done alone or with household members.
> Daily exercise rules: current cycling dos and don'ts
Other exceptions to the government guidelines to stay at home are to undertake essential shopping trips, to care for a vulnerable person, or to travel to and from work if it cannot be undertaken from home.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr this morning, Hancock said: “If you don't want us to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside the home, you have got to follow the rules.
“Let's not have a minority spoiling it for everybody.”
He acknowledged the “really important” physical and mental health benefits of exercise and said that the government did not want to take away the opportunity for people to undertake it outside the home.
However, he added: “If the result of that is that too many people go out and flout the other rules because they say, ‘Well, I can exercise then it’s fine for me to do other things’ then I’m afraid we will have to take action.
It was a point he also made on Sky News today in an interview with Sophy Ridge.
He said: “To the very small minority who are continuing to flout the guidance – you are putting others’ lives at risk and you are putting yourself in harm’s way."
Hancock added: “We are crystal clear in the guidance what people should or shouldn't do," he stressed.
“This is not a request, it's a requirement. People need to follow it.”
On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to avoid the temptation to ignore lockdown restrictions ahead of what is proving to be a warm and sunny weekend across much of the country.
He said today: “Thank you to everyone who is saving lives by staying at home this weekend.
“I know it's tough, but if we all work together and follow the guidance, we will beat coronavirus.”
> How much distance should you leave to the cyclist ahead in a time of pandemic?
Pictures emerged in the press and on social media yesterday of police speaking to people who were sunbathing in locations including South London’s Greenwich Park and Brockwell Park.
The latter, located close to Herne Hill Velodrome, confirmed yesterday that it will now be closed to the public after an estimated 3,000 people visited the park yesterday.
Meanwhile, police in East London broke up an 18th birthday party attended by 25 people, while in Brighton, two people have been summonsed for taking part in a barbecue on the beach.
However, there has been criticism of some of the images used by certain newspapers in an attempt to highlighting apparent disregard for social distancing rules.
Yesterday, we reported on how an image used by Mail Online of cyclists apparently riding in a group in London’s Regent’s Park was misleading – and perhaps deliberately so.
> Mail accused of distorting truth in “MAMIL madness” Regents Park cyclists story
Taken from the front using a telephoto lens, foreshortening meant that the riders in the picture appeared much closer together than they actually were.
Regent’s Park Cyclists, which represents riders who use the park, retweeted a picture of the image together including the caption that Mail Online had given it.
It took them a week to get that photograph. https://t.co/wLYI5hBCqm
— RegentsParkCyclists (@RPcyclists) April 4, 2020
That same picture was published online by The Sun, for example, with its caption claiming that it showed the cyclists “huddled together.”
However, Regents Park Cyclists said yesterday that “the vast, vast majority” of cyclists had been “extremely respectful” of requests by the Royal Parks and the police to ride responsibly and follow social distancing guidelines.
> Updated: How to cycle responsibly in a time of pandemic
Please note: This story was originally published at 11:57am on Sunday 5 April 2020 and udated at 9:30pm the same day to reflect Matt Hancock's comments in the evening press conference.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Velophaart_95 1 hour 15 min ago
What is 'an average cyclist'? The woman next door shopping on her bike is as much as a cyclist as the local wannabe pros in lycra.
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If there is maybe 2 inches of snow or frost, I sometimes do interval training on my cyclo cross bike on local playing fields - usually in evenings....
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I'd say that 44x10 is a pretty big gear! Pair a 46 or 48t cassette with a reasonably sized chainring and it will hopefully get you up most things....
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district judge Andrew Sweet banned the rapper, who was not present in court, from driving for nine months and fined him £2,010...
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Thats hugely overpriced too unless you want the running stats, when the basic Garmin or Polar is £45. And again there are a dozen watches that can...
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None of these publicity-heavy, action-lite 'initiatives' will, I agree, make the slightest difference while the police are acting to thwart them...
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Police block road after (driverless) car ploughs into telegraph pole...
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57 comments
Why are we doing this, again? In what election were Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci elected as Co Presidents of the World? Do you recall voting in that one?
https://medium.com/@antonymueller/fooled-9de24aa66227
"There has been no noticeable rise of the [national] death rate. A look at the overall death statistics shows flat lines with fluctuations within its natural range. Even in Italy, there has not yet been a higher number of deaths than usual in the past couple of months. In absolute numbers, the death count is actually slightly down because of the seasonal factor that wintertime is over."
https://www.euromomo.eu/
I guess we won't get the full facts until all this is over, and maybe not even then. I read the piece by Antony Mueller and while I agree there is a lot of media hype and panic over this virus, the fact remains that hopital intensive care units are currently overwhelmed by people needing ventilators, and seemingly healthy people in the prime of their lives are dying from it. This is not usual, not even for the flu. You could say this is anecdotal and it doesn't trouble the death statistics, but that's the problem with statistics - you can use them to prove anything. I expect someone somewhere has produced a set of figures to prove exactly the opposite to Mueller. Who knows who's right?
But that is not true. With the exception of London where people continue to use public transport and apparently flout the lockdown (though I don't see much photographic evidence of that).
Take Buckinghamshire for example, 268 cases. Most of those will not be in hospital, let alone in ICU on ventilators. Buckinghamshire is served by 3 very large hospitals which can cater for several thousand patients. To say they are currently overwhelmed is just not true.
Most of them will have at least been in hospital at some point, given that it's mainly only people who've ended up in hospital that have been getting tested.
We won't know fully until next year, anually around 500,000 people die in the UK each year. Whilst this is lots of deaths together, and I don't mean this to sound callous, but so far it is just under 5,000. Around 8,000 people die of flu each years, that's taking in account that we have a flu vaccine. A friend of mine works in a hospital, he's known 50 people to die in one day of flu, which never gets reported. This seems worse because there is no vaccine, and it is a world problem.
Well the BMJ would dispute your anecdote.
https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2795/rr-6
If C19 was only as bad as flu and had no real impact on overall deaths, do you really think that all the world's governments would shut everything down? It doesn't seem worse, it is far wrose, because it's novel, so no immunity, no vaccine and no cure.
Bear in mind C19 deaths are on top of normal deaths and hopefully because we took action, the UK C19 death toll will only be in tens of thousands. If we hadn't then quarter to half a milion deaths were predicted. Again on top of the usual deaths.
Actually, that's not quite right.
What's being reported are 'deaths with Covid-19' - i.e. people who have died soon after testing positive for the disease. That will include some cases where it was not a contributing factor in the death, and some where it may only have made a death that was going to happen soon anyway come a little sooner.
Also, if you catch Covid-19, your chances of dying with it seem to be roughly similar to the chances that you would have died in the next year without catching it, given your age and health background. So there will be significant overlap between people dying with the virus and deaths that would have happened later in the year anyway.
In a broader sense, though, you're right - it will also include a lot of additional deaths on top of what we would otherwise have had.
The water is further muddied by the fact that deaths from seasonal diseases such as flu have been particularly low this year, so looking at aggregate deaths and comparing it to other years isn't particularly useful, because because the low background rate tends to hide the impact of this particular virus.
It's a bit like saying 71% men over 75 die FROM prostrate cancer, when the truth is 71% of men over 75 die WITH prostrate cancer.
** If threading worked on this forum it would be clear what this comment referred to. But it doesn't, so it isn't .**
You don't know how good you have it in the UK! I'm a brit living in Italy and here all forms of exercise have been banned. We can only leave the home to go shopping or walk the dog. Today in Tuscany where live, I have heard that it will now be mandatory that to leave the home to go shopping we will have to wear a mask. All the residents will be issued a pack of 3 masks. I suppose next, they will be telling us to wear hazmat suits.
The experts (in the UK) think it would be a bad idea banning physical exercise outside. See Expert Reactions on www.sciencemediacentre.org (UK site).
"banning people from exercising out of doors would have a negligible impact on the epidemiology of this disease but a marked impact on peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.” - Prof John Edmunds, Professor in the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
"“In many parts of the country, and most people, are following the guidance. There needs to be better enforcement rather than more restrictions. It is perfectly possible to exercise once a day and pose no risk to others or yourself." - Prof Keith Neal, Emeritus Professor of the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, University of Nottingham
Which is all well and good,but the ones ultimately making the decision will be guided by the politics of the decision, and the politics follows the media narrative,not the science, which is overwhelmingly they arent doing enough to curb this minority 'breaking the rules'. Plus they need to be sure the rules will be followed over the Easter weekend and what's the easiest way to ensure everyone follows the rules on social distancing that weekend, just keep calm and carry on or...?
Since food shopping is a reasonable excuse under sections 6 of the regs and nowhere does it mention how to get to any shop, I will be cycling to all shops if any further ban is introduced.
I do all my shopping by bike anyway. I have a supermarket nearby but may choose to use the other one which is much further away...
It isn't a few Londoners sunning themselves in parks, or two pairs of cyclists overtaking just as a news photographer takes a shot, that will cause an outdoor exercise ban. Some of those people may be acting slightly inadvisably, but that won't be the real reason. It will be because of people (rightly) criticizing the government for a decade of underinvestment in the NHS, for ignoring warnings about PPE shortages raised by Exercise Cygnus in 2016, for pissing away chances to bulk-buy ventilators with the EU, and for thinking they knew better about the need for testing kits, even while other countries proving otherwise. Those things will cause the government to need to divert blame onto some kids rollerblading, or MAMILs, or whoever the press chooses to demonize on their front pages next. That and an accelerating death rate, despite most people who die now having been infected weeks ago, back when the government was still allowing people to pour off planes at Heathrow without so much as checking their temperature, or permitting the Cheltenham Festival to carry on. Of course, we'll still be able to go to crowded supermarkets (because again there isn't the infrastructure and central planning for home delivery to reach more than a fraction of the population) which is a much higher risk of catching this virus than doing a ten-mile loop on a bicycle without stopping.
Not that the Tories are solely responsible, it is a pandemic after all, and Trump is making everyone else look good, but an emergency doesn't change the fact that they're a bunch of liars, and hence prone to making poor decisions to cover up their previous poor decisions.
The government have done a great job of deflecting and turning the population into the Orwellian Thought Police, ready to hate each other and grass on each other at any opportunity. For example, my local police force have had to issue a request that people don't call 999 if their neighbour has left the house twice in one day.
Meanwhile another nurse dies today through complete lack of PPE but people are more upset about people sitting in a park than they are holding the government to account.
"thinking they knew better"
Which sums up Johnson, Cummings, Francois and the rest of the Brexit nutjobs.
Off topic HarrogateSpa, how's the stray doing after the recent dry spell?
Many sunbathers?
Back on topic...
So because people are doing X we should ban Y.
X = prostrate, vegetating in the sun
Y = taking exercise.
In neither case are we even talking about social distance, which is supposed to be the issue in question.
How big is Brockwell Park? How widely spaced were the sunbathers?
These all seem to be very widely spaced.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-some-britons-defy-lockdown-again-and-one-police-officer-had-clearly-had-enough-11969004
and yet ...
The Scottish Cheif Medical Officer - the one that been giving us Scotts all the stay-at-home advice - takes her family to their holiday home.
Guess stay at home only applies to some then
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52171694
The police have now given her a caution therefore I wonder when they'll be popping in to see Charles about him popping off to his holiday home paricularly as he was a carrier spreading the virus across the country.
A caution? So, not a spot fine and shaming on twitter?
She's gone now, knew she would be by this morning.
Matt, why not enforce the "guidance" that is already in place?
Crystal Clarity, as if...
It sounds like the closure is only for Sunday, and it'll reopen on Monday.
Banning exercise? Not a problem.
Instead of buying a bag of apples or bunch of bananas once/twice a week, make an essential grocery trip by bike each day to buy just an apple or a banana. If you're a weight weenie then select a lightwieght fruit such as a grape.
Exercise is fine. Riding up Box Hill, at whatever pace constitutes exercise for you, is fine. Sitting around in a crowd at the viewpoint at the top is not exercise and is not fine. So, to whoever it was who was being moved on by the police this morning, may your spokes snap and your tyres burst, especially the halfwit wandering all over the road after being moved on.
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