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The scale of the health emergency now facing the UK was exposed on Wednesday night as figures showed that more than 1,000 people had died from the virus in the previous 24 hours and hospitals reported treating a record high. than 30,000 patients with Covid.
The alarming rise in fatalities came two days after the prime minister ordered a new, draconian lockdown, which was supported by an overwhelming majority in a Commons vote on Wednesday.
The UK’s daily death toll of 1,041 was the worst since the first wave of the virus last spring, with the number of new cases reaching a new high of 62,322.
Boris Johnson was forced to defend his handling of the Covid pandemic as:
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3,587 people were admitted to hospitals in England known to suffer from Covid, surpassing the previous record reached last weekend.
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Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese warned that Greater Manchester hospitals were “at grave risk of falling”
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Homecare providers warned that infection rates are rising as they wait for the vaccine to be delivered, and a home in Sussex lost half its residents over Christmas.
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Principals warned that some schools are “rammed” despite the closure.
The prime minister urged the public to stay home on Monday, nearly a fortnight after the government’s Sage committee warned that the new variant of the disease meant it was unlikely it would be possible to control it without stricter measures, including the closure of schools.
Speaking to MPs in Westminster, where the House of Commons was called to discuss the new lockdown rules, Johnson insisted that Covid’s tiered restrictions in England had been in place until the arrival of the new variant of the disease.
And he accused Labor leader Keir Starmer of making “partisan political points” when Starmer claimed that the need for another lockdown was “not just bad luck and not inevitable” but the result of the prime minister not acting sooner.
Johnson blamed the new variant, saying: “It is inescapable that the facts are changing and we must change our response.”
But Starmer cited what he called a “pattern” of poor decision-making, including Johnson’s refusal to sanction a “circuit breaker” lockout in September, and heeding an official report that warned last summer of the challenges of a second There is the risk that the virus could mutate.
“We had a tiered system that didn’t work, and then we had the debacle of the late decision to change the rules on mixing at Christmas,” Starmer said. “The most recent advice on the situation we are in was given on December 22, but no action was taken for two weeks until Monday of this week. These are the decisions that have brought us to the position we are in now. “
The government’s abrupt turn to opening schools caused chaos, and teachers were hastily forced to prepare lessons online just hours in advance. As schools remain open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers, many report significantly higher attendance than at the close of last year.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed Wednesday that exams, including A-levels, GCSE and Sats, would be canceled. He said the government would depend on teachers to evaluate students, but details of how it will be carried out have yet to be announced.
Johnson’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, insisted that the prime minister had full confidence in Williamson, saying: “This is a huge report and the prime minister believes the education secretary is doing it to the best of his ability.”
In Wednesday’s debate in the Commons, Johnson promised schools would reopen first, when the closure can be lifted, but declined to give a firm prediction of when.
“Schools were the last to close, as I always promised they would,” he said. “When we begin to leave the confinement, I promise that they will be the first things to reopen. That moment may come after the February semester, although we must be extremely cautious about the calendar ahead of us. “
Few Conservative MPs openly opposed the new shutdown, though many lobbied Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to speed up delivery of the vaccine and called for more financial support for the hardest hit companies.
With the support of the Labor Party, the new regulations were overwhelmingly passed, by 524 votes to 16. The rebels included New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne, who told the prime minister that the latest regulations were “infused with a petty malice, “citing the fact that members of the same household cannot play tennis or golf together. Johnson told him: “Pettifogging, yes. Malicious, no. “
The daily death toll from the virus was the highest since last spring, when there were more than 1,000 deaths per day for 22 consecutive days, although at that time deaths in hospitals and nursing homes were not collected into a single daily figure. .
Leese, speaking at a press conference in Manchester, said Hancock and others had used the risk of hospitals in the region “going down” as a reason to put Greater Manchester under level 3 restrictions last year.
“I don’t think we were at risk of falling at that time. Now I do believe that we are at serious risk of falling, and that really means we have to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, “he said.
Leese added that 30% of all new local cases were of the new variant, suggesting that it is successfully spreading outside of south-east England, where it was first identified.
In the Commons, Labor MP Yvette Cooper asked why the government had not yet imposed restrictions on arrivals to the UK, given that another South African variant of Covid has been identified, which some scientists fear could be resistant to vaccines. . The government has said it is considering imposing a requirement for pre-departure testing of visitors to the UK, but has yet to announce details of the scheme.
A Johnson spokesperson said Wednesday: “Obviously, the global and national situation that we are seeing has changed, with increasing levels of coronavirus, so it is important that we take the action we need. The principle of pre-departure testing is that it will allow an additional layer of protection against the virus. “
Details are expected to be announced before the weekend.
