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LONDON (AFP): Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a six-week shutdown for England’s 56 million people, including school closings, after a surge in coronavirus cases prompted warnings that hospitals would soon they could face collapse.
Johnson emphasized that Britain was leading the way with the introduction of two vaccines, including one from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which began implementation on Monday.
All priority groups should take their blows by mid-February, he said in a nationally televised speech, insisting that “we are tilting the odds against Covid and in favor of the British people.”
“But for now I’m afraid we must once again stay home, protect the NHS (National Health Service) and save lives,” Johnson said, adding that the lockdown would take effect early Wednesday and remain in effect until mid-February.
The prime minister had been under pressure from scientists, opposition parties and UK delegate nations to act more decisively. Hours earlier, Scotland said it would close again for the rest of the month.
In a race between the inoculation campaign and Covid-19, the spread of a new variant strain of the virus threatens to win, UK medical chiefs warned when they raised the national alert level to the maximum of five.
On Britain’s emergency alert scale, that indicates a risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed within 21 days without urgent action.
– Exams and flights –
The new lockdown announced by Johnson emulates the first national restrictions in place from March to June, and goes beyond another one instituted in November, when schools were allowed to remain open.
The decision means that summer exams are unlikely to take place, the government acknowledged, creating months of uncertainty for millions of families, including students hoping to enter college.
But unlike last spring’s first lockdown, elite sports, including Premier League football, will continue.
The first time, Great Britain kept its borders open to international travel. But the government said it was now reviewing whether to take action on incoming flights after another new strain emerged in South Africa.
Officials underscored the severity of the spread now compared to last spring, due to the variant that emerged in south-east England.
Hospital admissions are now 40 percent higher than the spring peak reached on April 12. On January 4, there were 26,626 covid patients in the England hospital, an increase of more than 30 percent on the same day the previous week.
“We are not sure that the NHS can handle a sustained increase in cases and without further action there is a material risk that the NHS in various areas will be overwhelmed,” said UK medical officials.
– Parliament to vote –
Great Britain, one of the countries hardest hit by the global health crisis, with more than 75,000 deaths, has pinned its hopes on the mass vaccination campaign.
But more than 50,000 positive cases were recorded in Britain every day for the last week.
Some 44 million people, more than three-quarters of England’s population, had already been advised to stay home and work remotely under a patchwork of regional restrictions.
With the new closure, all non-essential shops in England will be closed, along with bars, restaurants and other entertainment and hospitality venues.
The House of Commons was pulled from its Christmas and New Year holidays to vote on the new measures on Wednesday.
The leader of the main opposition Labor party, Keir Starmer, voiced his support for the blockade after criticizing the government over the weekend.
– Easier to store –
The announcement overshadowed the first Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine given to a member of the public outside of a clinical trial.
Brian Pinker, 82, a retired maintenance manager on dialysis for kidney disease, received the vaccine at an Oxford hospital and said it was “the only way to get back to normal life.”
Some 530,000 doses will be administered at new vaccination sites in Britain, in addition to those already using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since the beginning of last month.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve the use of a vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech on December 2, and it has already given a first dose to nearly a million people.
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is much cheaper than its rivals, costing around £ 2.50 (RM13.60) per dose, making it affordable for developing countries.
It can also be stored in the refrigerator, while Pfizer-BioNTech requires ultra-low temperature storage. – AFP
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