Britain's government will launch a media campaign this week to urge people to return to their workplaces, ramping up Prime Minister Boris Johnson's calls to get economy back up to speed up after its hammering during the coronavirus lockdown, Reuters reported.

Data has shown only 17 per cent of workers in British cities had returned to their workplaces by early August, and one of the country's business leaders said last week that big urban centres looked like ghost towns.

“The next stage we'll look at is specifically the guidance on how to get back to work safely and we expect to see that later this week,” Johnson's spokesman said, commenting on the government's ongoing public information campaign.