Coronavirus: Britain celebrates the last big party before tightening

Britain
Corona’s numbers are incessantly increasing: the last party before closing?

“We have to act now to stop the spread of the virus”: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed his people in clear words a few days ago. Because the number of infections has soared recently: on Friday there were more than 3,500 new confirmed infections in Britain; the figures were last so high in mid-May. The country thus joins the development of many European countries. “We are starting to lose control of the virus,” Mark Walport, director of the UKRI state research and innovation institute, said in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.

The weekend of the big party

To curb the spread of the virus, England is again tightening its rules on social contacts. Starting Monday, only groups of up to six people are allowed. The prohibition applies to both indoor and outdoor spaces. The current limit is 30 people. The so-called “rule of six” does not apply to schools, workplaces, weddings and funerals, or team sports.

Therefore, many Britons used the weekend to celebrate again. The photos show how thousands of people from London to Manchester screamed and danced in the street, with only a very few night owls meeting the distance or mask requirement. Restaurants and bars were bursting. The police have stated that they have checked it with special attention, but it is to be hoped that the officers have not discovered all the breaches of hygiene requirements.

As of Monday, infractions of the rule of six can be punished with a fine of 100 pounds (equivalent to 110 euros). For each repeated offense, the penalty is doubled up to £ 3,200. This measure is supposed to have a deterrent effect on the party, because the R factor recently soared to 1.7. This means that ten infected people infect an average of 17 more people. This leads to exponential growth. Health experts fear that the spread of the virus could accelerate in the coming weeks, as more and more groups gather in closed rooms in light of the colder temperatures.

Those responsible for the increase in numbers in Britain are mainly people between 17 and 29 years old who do not always adhere to hygiene and distancing measures. UK national statistician Ian Diamond has urged these people to be “incredibly vigilant of social distance rules” to avoid a second wave of Covid-19.

The virus reaches high-risk groups again

But it’s not just England that is seeing the corona virus break out. Daily cases of coronavirus in Scotland have also reached a four-month high. A total of 221 people recently tested positive for the virus, the highest number since May 8. Nicola Sturgeon, Prime Minister of Scotland, tweeted: “Please heed all public health advice. Now more than ever, we must remember that what we do as individuals at this time affects the well-being of all. Let us take care of each other. “.

The stricter measures also have to do with fears that the virus will spread from younger Britons to older populations. That may already be the case: Data from Public Health England (PHE) indicates that the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing among those over 50, a “worrisome” development for high-risk groups.

In the past week, the number of new corona infections increased by 92 percent among those over 50, by 72 percent among those over 60, and by 44 percent among those aged 80 and over. The number of hospital admissions is also increasing. In people aged 60 to 75 there was a 20 percent increase in relation to Covid-19 compared to the previous week, and in people aged 75 to 84 there was a 72 percent increase.

Puff up:Nicola sturgeon, BBC