English  pubs reopening becomes drunken street party

The reopening of pubs in England, after more than three months of confinement, caused excesses and “dangerous” situations on Saturday night, and fears a new outbreak of the coronavirus  pandemic and sent a message to  .authorities in other countries  pressed to return to normal

“The crowd started arriving from 1:00 pm and quickly everything got out of control,” says Rafal Liszewski, the manager of a store on one of the busiest streets in London’s Soho neighborhood. 

“At 8: 00-9: 00, there was a real street party, with people dancing and drinking,” the 36-year-old woman told the British news agency PA , adding that “no one wore a mask” and it was “physically impossible to  ”Respect social distancing.”. 

Only in England did pubs , hotels, hairdressers, cinemas and museums reopen on Saturday, a move deemed too premature by Wales and Scotland British which adopted their own de-confinement calendar. In spite of cheerleading by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The pubs in Wales and Scotland plan to partially open in about ten days.

This “Super Saturday”, highly anticipated by the English, very fond of their traditional pubs, has raised the concern. of Johnson who  had said that it was “absolutely vital that everyone respects the rules on social distance.” and warned that restrictions could be reimposed if the easing led to an increase in virus cases.

The United Kingdom is the country in Europe most affected by the pandemic, with more than 44,000 deaths.

The pubs themselves imposed a series of measures to reduce health risks, such as table service rather than in the bar, specific signage, physical distance, wearing a mask and gloves for employees, in addition to providing alcoholic gel.

However, on Sunday morning photos of drunks s and people breaking e the sanitary slogans flooded social networks and newspapers. 

An image taken by an AFP photographer on a Soho street shows several people falling on top of each other.

“Soho is transformed into a gigantic street party, where drinkers ignore the rules of social distance,”  said the Sunday Mirror weekly headlines . 

In Devon and Cornwall, local police explained in a tweet that they had handled more than 1,000 calls overnight, “most linked to alcohol use.”

“It is crystal clear that drunk people cannot and will not maintain social distance,” said  a tweet by  John Apter, president of the Police Federation.

A policeman on duty Saturday night in Southampton (southern England) recounts that he spent the night trying to appease “naked men, happy drunkards and angry drunkards” fighting “battles.”

Several pubs like the “Red Lion” in Rotherham (central England).had to close their doors to the massive flow of customers,

The establishment explains on Facebook that it had to call the police since it was quickly “literally flooded by dozens of consumers” after the security forces closed other pubs in the vicinity, creating a “dangerous” situation.

Questioned on Sky News Sunday, Health Minister Matt Hancock said: “According to what I have seen, and even if there are images that show the contrary, people have acted very largely in a responsible way.”

The minister declared himself “globally satisfied” with the way that “Super Saturday” unfolded, and promised to take action against “the minority that violates the rules.”

According to the forecasts of a  brewers’ association, the reopening of pubs was to bring together some 6.5 million customers this weekend and generate 210 million pounds, $266 million).