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A person gestures to a sign with a public health information message, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as new restrictions take effect, in London, Britain, on Dec. 20 2020. REUTERS / Toby Melville
LONDON – London and south-east England may remain under tighter restrictions for some time to stop a rapidly spreading new strain of coronavirus, Britain’s health minister suggested on Sunday, as COVID-19 cases spiked by a record number for one day.
The government faced criticism for abruptly scrapping plans to ease restrictions by Christmas and impose an effective lockdown on more than 16 million people. Health Minister Matt Hancock defended the decision, saying evidence showing the new strain was causing an increase in cases had forced action.
The variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transmissible than the original, also raised concerns about further spread. Several European countries, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, said they were taking steps to prevent people from arriving from Britain, including banning flights and trains.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke plans to allow three households to mingle indoors for five days during the holiday period and imposed new Level 4 restrictions, similar to a nationwide shutdown in March, in London and south-east London. England.
Hancock suggested that the stricter measures, which require around a third of England’s population to stay home except for essential reasons like work, could remain in place until vaccines become more available.
“We have a long way to go to fix this,” Hancock told Sky News.
“Basically, we have to implement that vaccine to keep people safe. Given how quickly this new variant spreads, it will be very difficult to keep it under control until we launch the vaccine. “
Britain began inoculating people with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech earlier this month.
The number of cases in Britain rose by 35,928 on Sunday, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, and recorded 326 deaths, bringing the official figure to more than 67,000.
Alarm bells
The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, told a press conference that while he supported the new measures, “once again the prime minister waited until 11 o’clock to make this decision.
“The alarm bells have been ringing for weeks, but the prime minister decided to ignore them … He told the country to go ahead and have a merry Christmas … and yet three days later he tells millions of families to break those plans, “he said. he said, referring to comments Johnson made Wednesday.
Shortly after Johnson announced the changes on Saturday afternoon, some in London headed to train stations to try to travel to see relatives over Christmas, and there were scenes of overcrowding – something Hancock called “totally irresponsible. “.
The new rules went into effect on Sunday.
Transport Minister Grant Shapps called on people under the new restrictions not to travel and said more transport police were being deployed to ensure that “only those who need to make essential trips can travel safely.”
The other nations of the United Kingdom, whose response to the pandemic differs from that of England, also took action. Scotland imposed a travel ban on the rest of the UK, effectively closing the border, and its holiday relaxation will be limited to December 25 only.
All of Wales will go to Level 4 starting at midnight, but two households can mix on Christmas Day.
Non-essential retail stores, as well as places like gyms and hair salons, were ordered to close in Level 4 areas and some companies called the new measures a “real kick in the teeth.”
Hancock said the government recognized that the economic impact of the new measures would be “severe” but that it had to weigh that against the health consequences.
The United States is monitoring the new strain in Britain, several US officials said, adding that it was unclear whether the mutated variant had made it to the United States.
Other countries have also identified a new variant of the coronavirus, including South Africa.
An epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, Emma Hodcroft, said on Twitter that the strains in Britain and South Africa were not the same.
For more news on the new coronavirus, click here.
What you need to know about the coronavirus.
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