No Escape: UK Police Will Patrol Roads To Enforce Travel Ban
Police force in England say they will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown.
The Gloucestershire Constabulary will patrol routes from Wales and pull over drivers they believe are making long journeys. Travelers without a good excuse will be asked to turn around.
If they don’t comply, officers will inform their Welsh counterparts because Gloucestershire police don’t have the authority to fine people traveling from Wales, the department said.
The situation illustrates the patchwork of restrictions imposed by authorities throughout the U.K., which has Europe’s highest coronavirus numbers, with 44,661 confirmed deaths.
Some 1,700 of those occurred in Wales, which has a population of about 3 million.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have established their own public health rules. Meanwhile, the national government created a three-tiered virus mandate system that applies to England alone.
But it is the Welsh government that has imposed one of the U.K.’s strictest lockdowns, including a ban on non-essential travel.
Under rules that took effect Friday evening, Wales also closed most businesses and restricted high schools to remote instruction.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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