British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that England is adopting a national blockade that he hopes will be difficult enough to contain a highly contagious new variant of Covid-19.
People can only leave home to buy essentials, work if they can’t, exercise, go to the doctor and escape domestic violence, he said in an advertisement late on Monday. Primary, secondary schools and colleges will also switch to remote education on Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.
“I fully understand the inconvenience and anguish that this change will cause millions of people and parents across the country,” said Johnson. “The problem is not that schools are unsafe for children … the problem is that schools can act as vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread among families.”
UK medical directors have recommended that the country move to the “Tier 5” alert level, which means that if the country does not take this action, the National Health Service’s capacity “could be overloaded in 21 days” said Johnson.
The changes occur as the UK struggles with a more communicable variant of Covid-19. To date, the country has recorded more than 2.6 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 75,000 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, the United Kingdom registered 58,884 new cases and has reported more than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus for seven consecutive days.
“The number of deaths is 20% in the last week and unfortunately it will increase even more … With most of the country already under extreme measures, it is clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are launched. “
Johnson warned on Monday that the UK would have “difficult weeks ahead” and that “there was no doubt” that tougher measures would be implemented.
Before the announcement, more than three quarters of England lived under “Tier 4” restrictions, the country’s most stringent measures.
On Monday afternoon, Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon announced a new home stay order for the country’s citizens starting at midnight. Schools in Scotland will remain closed until the beginning of February.
Kier Starmer, leader of the UK’s main opposition Labor Party, tweeted on Sunday that Johnson “should place national restrictions within the next 24 hours”.
Coronavirus vaccines are the only bright spot in a pandemic that continues to rage in the UK and much of the West. On Monday, the United Kingdom began launching the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after starting to deploy the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in December.
“There is a big difference compared to last year. We are now launching the largest vaccination program in our history, ”said Johnson.
If things go well, Johnson said everyone in the four priority groups should get their first injection of the two-dose vaccines in mid-February. That includes nursing home residents and their caregivers, all over the age of 70, all frontline health and social workers, as well as everyone who is clinically vulnerable, he said.
“If we are successful in vaccinating all these groups, we will have removed a large number of people from the path of the virus. And of course, this will allow us to end many of the restrictions that we have endured for so long, ”he said.
The UK government has decided to implement a 12-week delay between the first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca, in an attempt to cover as much of the population as possible.
The UK’s independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said on Sunday it endorsed the measure, with conditions, however, the British Medical Association criticized the UK’s decision to postpone second doses.