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Millions of people must cancel their Christmas gatherings and most stores have to close in London and much of southern England, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday, imposing a new, stricter level of coronavirus restrictions on the region to curb rapidly spreading infections.
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The UK Prime Minister is pushing ahead with the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions during the Christmas season. Source: Associated Press
Johnson, the capital and large areas in the south of England, which are already at the highest level of the UK government’s three-tier coronavirus alert system, will move to a new Tier 4 which requires all stores, Hair salons and nonessential indoor entertainment venues close after the end. business hours on Saturday, local time.
With just a few days until Christmas, Johnson also announced that a planned relaxation of socialization rules that would have allowed up to three households to gather in “Christmas bubbles” from December 23 to 27, will be canceled for Level 4 areas and will be it will drop dramatically in the rest of England.
“It is with great regret that I must tell you that we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.
He said he concluded that he “had no other choice” and that people must sacrifice this Christmas to have a better chance of protecting the lives of their loved ones.
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There are questions about whether current vaccines will work with the new strain. Source: 1 NEWS
Household mixing will not be allowed on Level 4, except under very limited conditions outdoors in public places. Travel in and out of Level 4 areas will not be allowed unless essential.
In the rest of England, people will be able to gather in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead of five, as the government originally planned.
The changes disrupt the plans of millions of people who were hoping to reunite with family and friends next week and force dozens to review their travel plans at the last minute. The day before yesterday, government officials said they would allow small private meetings to take place.
While restaurants, pubs, bars and theaters across much of England had to close on Wednesday and were prepared for a gloomy Christmas, all stores in Level 4 areas that do not sell food or medicine received only a hours notice of which must close after Saturday until Officials review the situation on December 30.
The British Retail Consortium said it was “tremendously regrettable news”, especially two weeks after the end of a month-long shutdown in England and at the height of the peak retail period of the year.
“Retailers have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in making stores COVID-safe for customers and staff,” said Helen Dickinson, executive director of the trade body. “For businesses, the government’s stop-start approach is deeply useless.”
In announcing the more restrictive category, Johnson said that a new, fast-moving variant of the coronavirus that is more than 70% more transmissible than existing strains appears to be driving the rapid spread in London and southern England.
London now has the highest infection rates in England, and officials said the new mutation accounted for about 60 percent of the capital’s cases.
“There is no evidence to suggest that it is more lethal or causes a more serious disease,” the prime minister stressed, or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the UK has alerted the World Health Organization that the new variant identified this week appears to be accelerating the spread of COVID-19. The government’s scientific advisers reached that conclusion based on preliminary modeling figures and continue to analyze the available data, he said.
Viruses mutate regularly, and scientists have found thousands of different mutations among samples of the virus that causes COVID-19. But many of these changes have no effect on how easily the virus spreads or the severity of symptoms.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told reporters after receiving a notification from England this week that the UN health agency “had no evidence that this variant behaves differently” and which was similar to a variant initially reported among minks in Europe. He said scientists would study the virus strain to see if there might be a difference in how it elicits an immune response in people.
Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own delegated governments and independent rules to control the virus, have already announced new closures once Christmas is over.
UK officials reported another 27,052 confirmed cases on Saturday and 534 more deaths from people who tested positive in the previous 28 days. The UK has the second highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe behind Italy, at 67,075.
