英国首相亲笔：保持耐心，英国终将全面重启

今天（5月17日），英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊在《每日邮报》发表署名文章，向国民解释政府的最新政策，并更新疫情的最新情况。

鲍里斯称英国已走过疫情高峰，但远未到全面解封之时，本周英国只是迈出了重启的第一步，还需要全民的努力和配合，才能迎来全面复苏。

同时，这篇文章也被英媒解读为首相对于党内右派要求快速解封的有力反驳。

对于解封，鲍里斯的核心观点依然是：保持耐心，密切监测，一步一个脚印逐步解封。

以下是亲笔全文，由英伦投资客逐字翻译，英文附于文末：

鲍里斯·约翰逊，2020年5月17日

如果2020年教会我们什么，那就是在我们经历最糟糕的一切时，依然能看到人性最美好的一面。

每天都有令人心碎的消息，因为许多人因为这个冠状病毒而丧生。虽然，受害者因此离开了他们的家人，朋友和亲人。但是，他们一直活在我们心中，每个死亡，都会促使我们加倍努力来战胜这种病毒。

我们只能通过共同行动来击败它。最近几周，我们不断看到人们为了保护他人生命而超越自我，我看到了他们的勇敢、同情心和无私奉献。

养老院和NHS的工作者正在尽一切努力让病人恢复健康；老师们协助照料这些关键工作者的孩子们；警察和狱警维持着街道和监狱的秩序；工人们坚持生产、加工、配送食品；工程师维护着电力和宽带的连通；我们的军队以令人敬畏的专业精神应对各种后勤挑战；公务员全天候工作，以执行每项政策决定-所有人都将他人放在首位。

作为最可爱的人，他们每天都在用爱与善心面对这个世界。并且，他们的努力没有白费，因为整个英国人民都接受了这个艰巨的挑战：待在家里。

我知道，与亲友长期隔离是一件非常困难的事。无法去教堂，甚至无法与他人享受美好时光。拥有社交和爱是人的天性。然而，这场流行病却剥夺了我们至关重要的人际交往。

如此巨大的牺牲已经得到回报。检测能力增加的同时，我们也看到了确诊病例趋于平稳和下降，住院人数更是连续走低。尽管此前有人预测英国没有足够的ICU床位，我们的重症监护能力将难以应对这场疫情，但NHS最终没有被击穿。

我从一开始就明确指出，只有在安全的情况下，我们才能在科学的指导下修改封锁措施。我们设置了解封必须满足的五大条件，目前其中三条已达标，其余两条也取得了积极进展。我们还建立了五级新冠警报系统，该系统由新的英国联合生物安全中心进行监测，该中心将密切评估新冠病毒的感染能力，并就我们如何解封提供决策。

英国公众的毅力，良好的秩序，以及渴望恢复自由的愿望，已经使我们向前迈进了一大步。

我们已经宣布了关于人们什么可以做，什么不可以做的新规定。现在，你可以在户外待上更多的时间，例如坐下来呼吸新鲜的空气，享受野餐或日光浴。你也可以在户外与其他家庭的人会面，但前提是要保持社交距离。你可以多次在户外运动锻炼。

不过即便我们修改了这些规定，但大家仍然需要保持警惕，保持社交距离并定期洗手依然非常重要。

另外，我们放松这些封锁措施，是因为有证据表明，新冠病毒在户外传播的风险很低。而增加锻炼，与朋友或家人在公园或路口相见，对我们的身心健康也有很大好处。

而且最重要的是，这些解封措施不会逆转我们的抗疫结果。我相信我们考虑到了所有因素，只有在确认真正安全时，我们才会再次修改规定。

既然我们已经降低了感染率，而且感染人数越来越少，那有些人也将可以开始工作。我们与雇主、工会和政府就如何确保工作场所的安全进行了广泛的对话。我们共同制定了复工安全指南，这意味着我们可以鼓励无法在家工作的人们，以安全的方式回到自己的工作场所。

我们要传达的信息是：如果可以的话，那就在家工作，如果不能在家工作，那你可以外出工作。外出时请尽量避免使用公共交通工具。

我们希望不早于六月，进入解封第二步，为更多儿童重开学校，并重新开放一些商店。

另外，我们希望不早于七月，进入解封第三步，开放一部分休闲娱乐设施，并重开酒店业。

随着各种措施的推进，我们将逐步恢复常态，但前提一定是这些调整必须满足我们的解封五大条件。无论在未来哪个阶段，如果我们需要重新全面封锁，我们将毫不犹豫地采取行动。没有什么比挽救生命更重要。

我知道人们会对某些新规则感到沮丧。我们正在尝试做之前从未做过的事情-以安全且不会牺牲所有辛勤工作的方式-将国家从全面封锁中移出。我意识到，我们现在面临的问题，比简单一句呆在家里要复杂的多，但我们信任英国人良好的秩序观。

如果我们都坚持下去，那么我们将逐步走出封锁，并让家人见面变得更加容易和简单。但我们必须要在适当的时机缓慢行动。

我要亲自感谢你们的坚持，最重要的是，你们的耐心。我想向你们保证，一定会有妥善的解决方法。

三月的时候，我就说过，凭借努力，我们可以在三个月内扭转局势。我们现在已经走过疫情高峰。

我说过，如果我们能够得到足够准确的抗体检测工具，那将是巨大的进步。本周英国卫生部已经批准了100％准确的抗体测试试剂。

我说过，我们将竭尽所能寻找疫苗。虽然还有很长的路要走，而且我必须坦率承认疫苗可能永远无法实现，但我们不放弃，且正在和全球国家共同努力。

一批最前沿的疫苗研究正在英国紧张进行。今天，我宣布投资9300万英镑，比计划提前整整12个月，在英国开设新的疫苗制造和创新中心。

我们还支持对该病毒进行药物治疗的研究，该研究可以使感染该病毒的人尽快恢复健康。

尽管做出了这些努力，但我必须承认，我们可能需要在很长一段时间和病毒共存。我们需要找到控制病毒的新方法。我们将通过检测和跟踪来做到这一点，即检测出现症状的人，并跟踪可能已被感染的联系人。

NHS开发的追踪APP将帮我们实现这一点，它会提醒可能感染该病毒的所有人。根据要求，感染或者疑似感染的人需要自我隔离，这样一来，我们可以帮助他们保护自己的亲友，并同时阻止病毒在社区中扩散。

通过对到达港口和机场的人员进行检查并采取隔离措施，我们将能够继续将感染数量保持在较低水平，并且我们还可以给予其他人更多的自由，让他们尽可能正常地生活。

到目前为止，我们已经取得了一些成就。现在，让我们继续保护这些成果，我们必须保持警惕。我们必须要这样做，因为只有我们做到自律，才能帮我们恢复往日生活。

我知道这绝非易事—让婴儿学走第一步从来都不容易。但我希望，当未来我们回顾今天的时候，会把我们本周所做的改变，视为英国重启之路的重要时刻。

英国首相署名文章原文：

Boris Johnson，17 May 2020

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is truly that the worst of times bring out the best in humanity.

Every day brings heart-breaking news as more lives are lost before their time to this vicious coronavirus. Every victim leaves behind family, friends and loved ones who mourn their loss. They remain constantly in my thoughts; each death a spur to redouble our efforts to defeat this virus.

We can only defeat it by acting together. In recent weeks we have seen phenomenal bravery, compassion and selflessness as people go above and beyond to protect the lives of others.

The staff in our care homes and NHS doing all they can to bring the sick back to health. Teachers helping critical workers go to work by looking after their children, while still teaching those at home. Police and prison officers keeping order on our streets and in our prisons. Those producing, processing, distributing and selling food. Engineers keeping the lights on and our broadband connected. Our armed forces rising to every logistical challenge with awesome professionalism. Civil servants working round the clock to implement every policy decision – all these people are putting others first.

They are the best of us, punctuating each day with a million acts of love and kindness. And their efforts have not been in vain for a simple reason – because the British people as a whole have risen so magnificently to the challenge we set: to stay at home.

I don’t underestimate how difficult it has been for everyone to be cut off from friends and parents, children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters. Unable to visit places of worship or even just spend time with others. We thrive off social contact and having those we love around us – it’s human nature. Yet those vital human connections have been cruelly denied to all of us by this insidious disease.

These enormous sacrifices have paid off. We have seen the number of positive cases plateau and fall, even as testing capacity has increased tenfold. The number of people admitted to hospital with Covid has steadily fallen. Despite predictions that critical care capacity would struggle to cope, the NHS was emphatically not overwhelmed.

I made clear from the outset that we can only make changes to the lockdown when it is safe to do so, guided by science. We set five tests, of which three have been met and progress is being made on the remaining two. We are setting up a system of COVID-19 Alert levels, which will be overseen by a new UK Joint Biosecurity Centre designed to assess the spread of the virus and inform decisions over how we lift the lockdown.

It is the British public’s fortitude, their perseverance, their good common sense and their desire to return to the freedoms they hold dear that has allowed us to inch forwards.

We have announced new rules on what people can and cannot do in England. You can now spend as much time as you like outdoors, for example sitting and enjoying the fresh air, picnicking, or sunbathing. You can meet one other person from a different household outdoors, provided you maintain social distancing. You can exercise outdoors as often as you wish and play sport.

Even with these changes, it’s vital that people stay alert, keep their distance from others and carry on washing their hands regularly.

These changes are possible because the evidence shows that the risk of transmission is significantly lower outdoors. Being able to see a friend or family member at a safe distance, in a park or at the end of the road, provides significant benefits to our physical and mental wellbeing - but crucially, it does not risk reversing the gains we have so far won in the fight against the virus. I am confident that the balance of risk, taking everything into account, means we can safely make this change.

Now that we have driven the rate of infection down, and there are fewer infections, some people can also start returning to work. We have held extensive talks with employers, trade unions and the devolved administrations about how to make workplaces safe. The COVID-19 Secure guidelines we developed together mean we can encourage people who can’t work from home to go to their place of work in a safe way.

The message is: work from home if you can but travel to work if you can’t. And avoid public transport if you can, but use it if you can’t.

No earlier than June, we hope to move to step two, opening schools to more children and re-opening some shops. And no earlier than July, we can move to step three, opening parts of the leisure and hospitality sectors. Over time we can gradually get closer to a kind of normality - but only if the evidence shows these adjustments are compatible with our five tests. And if at any stage we need to tighten the restrictions, we will not hesitate to act. Nothing is more important than saving lives.

I understand that people will feel frustrated with some of the new rules. We are trying to do something that has never had to be done before - moving the country out of a full lockdown, in a way which is safe and does not risk sacrificing all of your hard work. I recognise what we are now asking is more complex than simply staying at home - but this is a complex problem and we need to trust in the good sense of the British people.

If we all stick at it, then we’ll be able, gradually, to get rid of the complexities and the restrictions and make it easier and simpler for families to meet again. But we must move slowly, and at the right time.

I want to thank you personally for sticking with us and - most of all - for being so patient. And I want to reassure you that there is a route out of this.

In the darkness of March, I said that with hard work, we could turn the tide within three months. We have now passed through the peak.

I said that, if we could get an antibody test showing whether you have had the disease, it would be a huge step forward. This week Public Health England have approved an antibody test which is 100% accurate.

I said we would throw everything we could at finding a vaccine. There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition. But we are leading the global effort. Some of the most promising research into vaccines is happening right here in the UK - and this weekend we are announcing a £93 million investment to open the new Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre a full 12 months ahead of schedule.

We are also supporting research into drug treatments for the virus which can bring as many people who have caught the virus back to full health as possible.

Despite these efforts, we have to acknowledge we may need to live with this virus for some time to come. We need to find new ways to control the virus. We will do that through testing and tracing - testing individuals who have symptoms to see if they have the virus and tracing contacts who may have been infected.

The NHS app and an army of contact tracers will help us alert anyone who may have caught the virus. By asking them to self isolate, we will help them protect their friends, family and loved ones, while stopping the spread of the virus in the wider community.

By screening arrivals at ports and airports and introducing quarantine measures, we will be able to keep the number of infections at low levels, and we can give everyone else more freedom to lead their lives as normally as possible.

We have achieved a lot together so far. Let’s not throw it all away now. In return for the small freedoms we are now allowing ourselves, we must stay alert. We must do so in the knowledge that our self-discipline will, eventually, lead to the return of our much-missed normality.

I know this will not be easy - the first baby steps never are. But I hope that, when we look back, the changes we have made this week will be seen as an important moment on the road to our nation’s recovery.