UK government website announce March 20th lockdown? Fact Check

A screenshot is circulating social media that purports to show a UK government webpage announcing a lockdown in the UK commences on March 20th 2020.

FALSE

The screenshot apparently shows a webpage on the GOV.UK website that claims anyone found outside of their property will face criminal charges. The screenshot is below.

COVID-19 is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It’s caused by a type of coronavirus.

From Friday 20th March, the country will go into a lock down. We urge the public to not panic as we are taking the necessary steps in order to surpress COVID-19. The military and police will be working across the country to ensure everything is running smoothly. I must stress that if you are found to be out of your property for no urgent reason, then you will face criminal charges. More details will follow.

However, such a message does not appear on the UK government website. We located the same page on the UK government website which reveals the second paragraph concerning an impending lockdown has been added in digitally by a hoaxer. A screenshot of the real webpage is below.

Of course, more eagled eyed readers would have noticed some red flags in the hoax version. Namely that it includes a misspelling of the word “suppress” and includes a first-person singular pronoun “I” (e.g. I must stress…) which is not consistent with the rest of the government website since the government usually refers to itself in the third person (e.g. The government will…)

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There are no currently plans for a “lockdown”, and on March 19th 2020, a day before the alleged lockdown in the message above, the UK Government has confirmed there is “zero prospect” for any type of lockdown, in London or elsewhere across the country.

A number of false or baseless claims have circulating offering proof that a UK lockdown orchestrated by the British army is imminent. We discuss them on this page here.

As for this claim, we rank it false and don’t recommend circulating it.