UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that he may restrict control of the coronavirus if people do not follow the rules, as his government has supported stricter enforcement.
Any “complacency” with the disease is displaced, Johnson said, although an immunization program is underway and 2.2 million people have received vaccines so far.
But he risked undermining his own plea to the public to stay home and act responsibly when he learned he had taken a seven-mile bike ride in London on Sunday.
“Of course, if we to feel that things are not being properly observed, so we may have to do more, ”said Johnson during a visit to a vaccination center at a sports stadium in Bristol, southwest England, Monday. The vaccine launch is a “race against time”, with the country at a “very dangerous time” with rising infection rates, he said.
Britain is facing the most difficult period of the pandemic, with hospital admissions increasing by 22% in one week, to more than 32,000, and the death toll now more than 80,000. Last week, Johnson announced a third national blockade, a move that threatens to push the UK into another recession and exacerbate the damage from the first blockade, which caused the deepest contraction in 300 years.
The vaccination program is the key to economic recovery, Finance Chancellor Rishi Sunak told lawmakers on Monday.
The government plans to start easing restrictions after February 15, the target date when Johnson wants all 15 million of the most vulnerable people and their caregivers to receive at least one dose of immunization.
Although Britain is far ahead of other European countries in launching vaccines, a new, more contagious variant of the disease is bringing health care to the breaking point. Medical advisers and staff are increasingly concerned that the public will not follow the rules and that hospitals will soon be full.
Bike ride
Johnson said the blocking rules need to be applied properly in food stores and urged people to think carefully before leaving the house for any reason. Hospitals are under intense pressure from an increase in Covid-19 cases, with oxygen supplies dwindling in some areas, he said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that everyone shares the responsibility for ensuring that the rules are obeyed and praised Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc chain store for saying it will refuse entry to anyone who does not wear a mask without a specific exemption.
“I am delighted that the police are stepping up their enforcement, but it is not just about the government and the rules we have established, or the police and the work they do, it is about how everyone behaves,” he said at a news conference. “I applaud the action that Morrisons took today,” he said. “This is the right approach.”
The premier’s office faced doubts about his own action after the London newspaper Evening Standard reported that Johnson was seen cycling through the Olympic Park, 11 kilometers east of his official residence, around 2 pm on Sunday. Official government guidance allows people to leave home for exercise, but recommends that people stay in their “local area”.
Why the UK Mutant Coronavirus is concerned about this: QuickTake
Hancock said long bike rides and 7-mile hikes are permitted under the rules.
But the episode threatens to rekindle a discussion of the behavior of Johnson’s former aide, Dominic Cummings, who was accused of breaking the blocking rules last spring when driving more than 400 kilometers outside London, when the country was being told to. stay at home. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his trip.
In other developments:
- Sunak warned that the country’s third blockade, which began last week, means that “the economy will get worse before it gets better”
- The NHS said the full impact of relaxing the rules over Christmas has not yet been seen in case rates
- 40% of those over 80 have had at least one injection of vaccine, with a total of 2.6 million injections administered so far
- The government published its vaccine delivery plan, promising to vaccinate tens of millions of people by spring, with “at least” 2 million injections performed each week at more than 2,700 vaccination sites across the UK
– With the help of Stuart Biggs, Alex Morales, Joe Mayes and Deirdre Hipwell