Photographer: Ben Birchall / PA Wire / Bloomberg
Photographer: Ben Birchall / PA Wire / Bloomberg
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More than 1 million people in England now have coronaviruses, the British government said, as doctors rush to vaccinate the most vulnerable against the rapidly spreading disease.
The rising case rates of the new virus strain mean that one person in 50 in England now has Covid-19, while in London one in 30 is infected, the results of the official survey showed.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed the statistics while promising to speed up the government’s vaccination program in order to end the last blockade. He said that 23% of all people over 80 in England have already received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, meaning that some of those most at risk are starting to get the protection they need.
Johnson underlined his promise to vaccinate nearly 14 million most at-risk people and caregivers by mid-February. He said 1.3 million people across the UK had already received the first of two shots.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that 23% of all people over 80 in England have already received a dose of the vaccine. One person in 50 now has coronavirus, according to the government. Johnson speaks at a press conference in London. (Parts)
But he signaled that there may be many more months of restrictions ahead, saying that current plans to end England’s national blockade in mid-February are subject to “many warnings, many ifs”. England’s medical director Chris Whitty said measures could be applied next winter, adding: “We shouldn’t be mistaken, it just disappears with spring.”
Invisible shield
The prime minister was speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, the day after placing the country in its third national blockade since the pandemic began. The rest of Europe is also suffering from the resurgence of a pandemic, with Germany struggling with high infection rates and struggling to launch vaccines.
New national restrictions in the UK threaten to push the economy into a double-dip recession, prompting the Johnson government to announce another emergency support package for companies worth over 4.6 billion pounds ($ 6.2 billion) billion).
“All of you want to make sure that we, in the government, are now using every second of this block to put that invisible shield around the elderly and vulnerable in the form of vaccination, and thus start to end this crisis,” Johnson said. “Yes, it is a huge effort. It is the largest vaccination program in the history of this country ”.
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He defended his decision to order the country to stay home again and noted the latest infection numbers showing record levels of coronavirus in the population. “The number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40% higher than at the first peak in April,” he said. “When everyone looks at the position, people overwhelmingly understand that we have no choice.”
The number of one in 50 infected people is an estimate based on a mass test survey that aims to find people who have infections but without symptoms. It is significantly higher than the infection rate suggested by the national totals of all positive test results, which depend mainly on people who seek tests when they have symptoms.
Passenger Test
British authorities are in negotiations on what else is needed to protect the UK from the pandemic, potentially including new restrictions on ports and airports for non-essential travel. At the press conference, Johnson said a new testing regime will be introduced. “We will be taking steps to ensure that we test people who enter this country and prevent the virus from being readmitted,” he said.
The blockade came after warnings from government medical consultants that the National Health Service could be overburdened in the next three weeks, unless urgent action was taken.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Whitty said that “hope“The new blockade will be enough to bring the pandemic under control. “If people follow these rules very firmly and at the same time, the NHS is vaccinating as fast as it can, then our hope is the lock will be enough. But we all have to do this. “
– With the help of Joe Mayes, Stuart Biggs, Emily Ashton and David Goodman
(Adds comments from Johnson and Whitty on the duration of the block in the fifth paragraph)