Boris Johnson imposes nationwide lockdown on England

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a press conference at 10 Downing Street in central London on December 24, 2020 to brief the nation on the post-Brexit trade deal.

Paul Grover | AFP | Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England was passing a national lockdown which he hopes is tough enough to hold a new, highly contagious variant of Covid-19 in.

People can only leave their homes to shop for essentials, work when they cannot be from home, play sports, see a doctor and escape domestic violence, he said in an announcement on Monday evening. Primary, secondary and colleges will also switch to distance learning on Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.

“I understand the inconvenience and hardship this change will cause millions of people and parents across the country,” said Johnson. “The problem is not that schools are unsafe for children … the problem is that schools can act as transmission vectors, causing the virus to spread between households.”

The British chief medical officers recommended that the country alert the fifth stage. If the country doesn’t take these measures, the National Health Service could “be overwhelmed in 21 days,” Johnson said.

The changes come as the UK grapples with a more transferable variant of Covid-19. To date, the country has recorded over 2.6 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 75,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The UK recorded 58,784 new cases on Monday and has now reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for seven days in a row.

“The death toll has risen by 20% in the last week and will unfortunately continue to rise … With most of the country already facing extreme measures, it is clear that together we must do more to address this new variant during our To bring vaccinations under control will be rolled out. “

Johnson warned earlier Monday that Britain had “tough, tough weeks” ahead of it and that there was “no question” that tougher measures would be implemented.

Prior to the announcement, more than three-quarters of England were living under “Tier 4” restrictions, the toughest level of action in the country.

On Monday afternoon, Scottish head of state Nicola Sturgeon announced a new order for citizens of the country to stay at home from midnight. Schools in Scotland will be closed until early February.

Kier Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labor Party in the UK, tweeted on Sunday that Johnson “must introduce national restrictions within the next 24 hours”.

Coronavirus vaccines are the only bright spot in a pandemic that continues to rage across the UK and much of the West. On Monday, the UK began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech shot began in December.

The UK government has decided to introduce a 12 week delay between the first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca in order to cover as large a segment of the population as possible.

The UK’s independent scientific advisory group on emergencies said Sunday that it was in favor of the move under certain conditions. However, the British Medical Association criticized the UK’s decision to postpone the second dose.

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