Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people to work from home and stop "all non-essential contact and non-essential travel" as the coronavirus outbreak deepens.
At the Government's first daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, he warned that we're now approaching the "fast growth" part of the pandemic.
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If you have a symptom you should stay at home for 14 days, leaving home only for exercise at a safe distance from others, he said.
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Even if you don't have symptoms, he added, "there is more we need you to do now" - before advising people to work from home and avoid unnecessary social contact.
He said: "Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and to stop all non-essential travel", also urging people to work from home and avoid pubs, clubs and theatres.
By this weekend, he said the most vulnerable people will need to start avoiding most social contact for 12 weeks.
And the PM said Londoners need to take particular heed of that advice.
'Period of maximum protection'
Mr Johnson added: "We want to ensure that this period of shielding, this period of maximum protection, coincides with the peak of the disease and it is now clear that the peak of the epidemic is coming faster in some parts of the country than in others.
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"And it looks as though London is now a few weeks ahead."
Mr Johnson said that it is "important that Londoners now pay special attention about avoiding non-essential contact and to take particularly seriously the advice about working from home and avoiding confined spaces such as pubs and restaurants".
He added: "Lastly, it remains true - as we said in the last few weeks - that this sort of transmissions of the disease at mass gatherings such as sporting events are relatively low, but obviously, logically, as we advise against unnecessary social contact of all kinds, it's right that we should extend that advice to mass gatherings as well.
"And so we've also got to ensure that we have the critical workers we need that might otherwise be deployed for those gatherings, to deal with those emergencies.
"So from tomorrow we will no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers in the way that we normally do."