With England, Scotland and Wales all going into total lockdown, the amusement and gaming industry is effectively stopped.
England went into total lockdown with a government announcement yesterday. In Edinburgh, the Scottish Government did the same thing, telling its population to stay at home. In Wales, schools and colleges will remain closed until January 18. The country has been in lockdown since December 20.
Scotland will remain in lockdown until the end of January at least, while in England it is expected to last until the middle of February.
Similar reports are emerging from across Europe, as governments struggle to cope with the increasing infection rate of the pandemic.
In Italy, everything is closed until a further announcement from the government on January 16. The Veneto region, with a high incidence of amusement games and entertainment, has the largest number of cases of Covid-19 in the country and Romagna, where the Enada spring trade show is due to be held, is the third most infected area.
Germany’s lockdown has been extended until the end of the month amid criticisms of the way the vaccination programme is being handled, against a background of federal and state elections coming up. In neighbouring Austria all casinos, bars and machine venues are closed until January 24 at least.
In many other European countries governments are considering taking similar stringent action.
