LONDON (AP) – Millions of people in the UK faced new restrictions on coronavirus on Saturday, with Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding stricter measures to try to stop a new variant of the virus that is believed to spread more quickly.
Northern Ireland went into a six-week blockade and in Wales, the restrictions that were relaxed for Christmas day were also reinstated.
The number of people under England’s highest level of restrictions – Level 4 – increased by 6 million on Saturday to 24 million people in total, about 43% of England’s population. The region included London and many of its surrounding areas.
No internal mixing of residences is permitted, and only essential travel is permitted. Gyms, swimming pools, hairdressers and shops selling non-essential products have been ordered to close, and bars and restaurants can only make take-out food. Business groups say the restrictions will be economically devastating for their members.
Another 570 daily deaths from COVID-19 have been reported, bringing the total death toll in Britain to 70,195, the second worst number of deaths in Europe after Italy. Britain also reported more than 32,700 new cases of the disease on Christmas Day.
Fears about the new UK variant sparked a week of chaos at the border. About 1,000 British soldiers spent Christmas day trying to clear a huge backlog of trucks stuck in southeastern England after France briefly closed its border with the United Kingdom and demanded coronavirus tests from all drivers.
But Britain’s transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said on Saturday that more than 15,000 drivers had been tested and that the backlog of orders at a test site at Manston Airport was released on Sunday morning. Only 36 positive tests have been reported, he said on Twitter.
“A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has worked tirelessly in the past few days to reduce the huge disruption caused by the sudden closure of the French border,” tweeted Shapps.
The first cases of the new variant in the United Kingdom have already been detected in France and Spain. A Frenchman living in England arrived in France on December 19 and tested positive for the new variant on Friday, the French public health agency said. He has no symptoms and is isolating himself in his home in the center of Tours.
Meanwhile, health officials in the Madrid region said they had confirmed the UK variant in four people, all in good health. Regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero said the new strain had arrived when an infected person flew to Madrid airport.
In her annual Christmas address, Queen Elizabeth II, who spent much of the year secluding herself at Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince Philip, delivered a sincere message of hope praising the “indomitable spirit” of those who rose “magnificently” “to the challenges of the pandemic.
The 94-year-old queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 99, were setting an example by not visiting relatives as usual at Christmas.
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