More than 16 million Britons must now stay home after a lockdown went into effect.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned that the new strain of coronavirus is “out of control” and suggested that parts of England will be trapped in the new higher level of restrictions until a vaccine is deployed.
More than 16 million Britons must now stay home after a lockdown in London and south-east England went into effect on Sunday and the government scrapped plans to relax rules on socializing at Christmas.
Measures to control the rapidly spreading new variant of the virus prohibit domestic mixing in those areas and restrict socializing only on Christmas Day in the rest of England. Residents across the country were told to stay in their local areas, and additional police officers were deployed at train stations to prevent people from traveling outside of London.
“Cases have absolutely skyrocketed, so we have a long way to go,” Hancock told Sky News. “I think it will be very difficult to keep it under control until the vaccine has been released.” People in the new Level 4 areas “should behave like they have it,” he said.
Hancock said 350,000 people had been vaccinated as of Saturday morning, with the ambition to reach 500,000 by the end of the weekend.
Johnson had originally planned to ease the pandemic rules for five days during the holidays, but made an abrupt change in course after emergency talks with authorities about the virus mutation.
Emerging scientific evidence suggests that the new variant, which according to Hancock also appeared in Australia and continental Europe, may spread significantly faster than previous strains in circulation and is behind the rise in infections in recent days.
“We made the compromise without knowing that there was going to be a new variant that would spread much faster,” Hancock said of the original plans. He said there is “no evidence” that the new strain, VUI-202012/01, is milder than the original virus.
Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 Technical Lead at the World Health Organization, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr program: “We understand that the virus does not cause more serious illness.”
Resignation call
Videos shared on social media showed a rush towards trains leaving London on Saturday night.
Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement that more transportation police will be deployed to prevent people from taking unnecessary trips out of the capital. Hancock said Shapps is examining compensation payments for canceled tickets.
Lisa Nandy of the opposition Labor Party said the policy change is “a perfect example” of Johnson “making a promise that he knew he couldn’t keep over Christmas.”
“I think we have this continuous drumming from the government,” Nandy told Andrew Marr.
Charles Walker, a lawmaker from Johnson’s Conservative party, told the Sunday Telegraph that Hancock should resign. Another Conservative MP, Mark Harper, representing a group opposing the lockdown measures, urged the government to summon lawmakers from their vacation so that they can vote on toughened measures against the virus.
Hancock said a vote will take place in January.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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