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01:21
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell employers next week to start ordering staff back into their places of work, as long as it is safe to do so, in order to stem the coronavirus hit to the economy, the Daily Mail said on Saturday.
Johnson has told top civil servants to set an example by starting to return staff to their desks and has also asked companies including Goldman Sachs to get more employees to start shifting away from homeworking, the newspaper said.
The prime minister will announce the change in an update on the novel coronavirus next week, it said.
Johnson was said to be shocked at the town center shops and restaurants' empty offices and concerned that widespread working from home would undermine Britain's productivity.
A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen at a bus stop with a public health campaign advertisement, following the coronavirus outbreak in London, Britain, May 17, 2020. /Reuters
During a public question-and-answer (QA) session with members of the public on Friday, Johnson hinted that the government may adopt stricter guidance on face masks in public places such as shops, pubs and restaurants, as part of the efforts to manage the spread of the coronavirus and to help return the state of normality.
"It's very important that people should be going back to work if they can, now. I think everybody's taken the 'stay at home if you can' (advice). I think now we should say 'go back to work if you can,'" Johnson said.
"I want people to go back to work as carefully as possible," he added.
Britain's economy shrank by 25 percent over March and April as COVID-19 escalated and the government ordered entire sectors to shut down.
On Wednesday, Britain's finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government would pay bonuses to employers who bring temporarily laid-off staff back to work among other measures aimed at slowing an expected surge in unemployment.
A passenger is seen wearing a face mask on the London Underground. /AFP
Britain's government recently recommended that measures such as wearing face coverings should be taken if people cannot keep to social distancing policies.
On Friday, face coverings became compulsory in Scottish shops, but people do not have to wear them in stores in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. People in England are only required to wear face masks on public transport and when visiting hospitals as a visitor or outpatient.
Britain's government is considering making face masks mandatory in shops and pubs, as the prime minister was seen wearing a face mask in public for the first time while visiting local shops and restaurants in Uxbridge on Friday.
As of Saturday, there have been 289,678 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom, and 44,735 people had died, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
(With input from agencies)
