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LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday (January 4) ordered England a new national lockdown to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases that threatens to overwhelm parts of the healthcare system before a program of vaccines reach a critical mass.
The announcement came just hours after the government praised Britain’s success in becoming the first country to start implementing the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca against COVID-19.
Johnson said that a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first identified in the UK and now present in many other countries, was spreading at high speed and immediate action was needed to stop it.
“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” Johnson said in a televised address to the country.
“With most of the country already under extreme measures, it is clear that we have to do more together to control this new variant,” he said.
“Therefore, we must enter a national blockade, which is tough enough to contain this variant. That means the government is once again ordering him to stay home.”
Non-essential shops and hospitality should remain closed, while primary and secondary schools would close starting Tuesday for all pupils except vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers.
Johnson said the disruption meant that it would not be possible for all exams to take place this summer, the second consecutive academic year in which the pandemic has wreaked havoc on student education and future plans.
Johnson said that if the launch of the vaccine went as planned and the death toll responded to the lockdown measures as expected, it should be possible to begin exiting the lockdown in mid-February.
However, he urged to be cautious about the timing and asked everyone to abide by the rules.
The British economy suffered a historic collapse of nearly 20 per cent in the April-June 2020 period when trading strips were closed for the first shutdown.
The new measures, which allow companies like construction companies to stay open, could cost about 10 percent of economic output while they last, said Julian Jessop, a fellow at the Institute for Economic Affairs, a think tank.
LAUNCH OF NEW VACCINE
As Britain grapples with the world’s sixth-highest death toll and the cases hit a new record, the country’s medical directors said the spread of COVID-19 risks overwhelming parts of the healthcare system in 21 days.
READ: Germany considers delaying second injection of COVID-19 vaccine, Denmark approves delay
The increase in cases has been driven by the new variant of COVID-19, officials say, and while they acknowledge that the pandemic is spreading faster than expected, they say there is also light at the end of the tunnel: vaccines.
The Johnson government previously touted a scientific “triumph” when Britain became the first country in the world to begin inoculating people with injections of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, received the first vaccine outside of a trial.
“I am very happy to receive the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it was invented in Oxford,” said the retired maintenance manager, just a few hundred meters from where the vaccine was developed.
But even with the implementation of vaccines, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths continues to rise.
More than 75,000 people in the UK have died from COVID-19 within 28 days of testing positive from the start of the pandemic. A record 58,784 new coronavirus cases were reported on Monday.
A few hours before Johnson, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon imposed the tightest blockade on Scotland since last spring.
Wales’ decentralized administration said all schools and universities should move to online learning until January 18.
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