Shopkeepers on Regent Street in London on 15 December.
Photographer: Daniel Lil-Olivas / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Daniel Lil-Olivas / AFP / Getty Images
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UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the new strain of coronavirus was “out of control” and suggested parts of England would be stuck in a new, higher-limit bond unless vaccinated.
More than 16 million Britons now need to stay at home after the lockdown in London and south-east England on Sunday and the government’s plans to relax rules on socialism over Christmas have been scrapped.
Measures to control the rapidly spreading new strain of the virus have banned domestic mixing in those areas and the rest of England has only banned socialization until Christmas Day. Residents across the country were told to stay in their local areas, and additional police were deployed at railway stations to prevent people from traveling from London.
“The cases are pretty rocky, so we have a long way to go,” Hancock told Sky News. “I think it will be very difficult to control it until the vaccine arrives.” He said people in the new tire areas area should “behave as they should,” he said.
Hancock said that as of Saturday morning, 1,000,000,000 people had been vaccinated, with the ambition to reach 1,000,000 by the end of the week.
Johnson originally planned to simplify the five-day epidemic rules during the holiday, but abruptly changed the way things were handled after emergency negotiations on a virus change with officials.
Scientific evidence suggests a new variable – which Hancock said has also spread to Australia and continental Europe – could spread faster than previous strains in circulation and lag behind the increase in infections these days.
“We made an unintentional commitment that there would be a new variant that would spread very quickly,” Hancock said of the original plans. He said there was “no evidence” that the new strain – VUI-2012/01 – was lighter than the original virus.
“We understand that the virus is not the cause of a more serious disease,” Maria Van Kerkov, the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr program.
Call to resign
Videos shared on social media showed side effects for trains leaving London on Saturday evening.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement that more transport police would be deployed to prevent people from traveling outside the capital unnecessarily. Hancock said the SPPs are investigating compensation payments for canceled tickets.
Opposition Labor’s Lisa Nandy said the change in policy was “an excellent example” of Johnson’s “promise he knew he couldn’t keep up with Christmas.”
“I think we have this ongoing drumbeat from the government,” Nandy told Andrew Maran.
Johnson’s Conservative MLA Charles Waker told the Sunday Telegraph that Hancock should resign. Mark Harper, another Tory MP who represents the Caucus who opposes the lockdown measures, urged the government to vote on the strict virus measures, urging them to call legislators from their vacations.
Hancock said the vote would take place in January.
(To add a WHO expert comment in the ninth paragraph, urge Hancock to resign on the 14th.)
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