Boris Johnson hits England completely locked out as NHS faces a deep Covid crisis

Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg

Boris Johnson imposed a third coronavirus lockdown across England, closed schools, and ordered the public to stay at home amid dire warnings that the National Health Service is in danger of being overwhelmed.

The emergency measures will start immediately and last until at least February 15, potentially devastating retail and hospitality companies and threatening to push the economy into a double dip recession as medics try to get a grip on the pandemic.

In a televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister insisted that he had no choice but to halt all social activities, education and non-essential travel in the face of a sudden and severe wave of infections. Similar steps are being taken in the rest of the UK, he said.

The government is now aiming to speed up a vaccination program and reach 13.9 million vulnerable people and carers by mid-February so that restrictions can be lifted.

“Our hospitals are under more pressure from Covid than ever before since the outbreak of the pandemic,” Johnson said on the air. “Now that most of the country has already taken extreme measures, it is clear that we need to do more to get this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out.”

Police fines

The police are given legal powers to use fines and dissemination orders to enforce the rules. Parliament will be recalled to debate the measures on Wednesday, but the regulations are due to be enacted on Tuesday, officials said.

The prime minister was forced to step in after data showed new infections exceeded 50,000 per day and more people were hospitalized than during the virus’ first spike in April.

On January 4, there were 26,626 patients in the hospital with Covid-19, a 30% increase in a week, which the government blames for an increase in infections from a new, faster-spreading strain of the virus.

Johnson’s Third Covid Lockdown Rules for England

Everyone should stay at home, unless they are doctors or other key figures who cannot work from home People can leave the house alone to buy essential supplies or get exercise, ideally only once a day All primary and secondary schools and colleges will close from Tuesday and switch to online education; exams will not take place this summer; nurseries remain open University students should not return to campus, but study from home instead Households have nowhere to mix for purely social reasons All restaurants, bars and non-essential shops will remain closed, except where they sell take-out food. Restaurant sales of take-away alcohol is prohibited Essential retailers such as supermarkets and pharmacies remain open Support and childcare bells – into which households connect until help each other – can continue

Johnson resisted pressure from opposition scientists and lawmakers to lock up the entire country in December. He cut plans to allow families to mingle at Christmas, but insisted that he wanted to avoid rural curbs like the one seen in March and chose to maintain a regional tier system instead.

But the government’s Chief Medical Officers for the four UK countries warned on Monday that the health service may not be able to cope without urgent action now. They issued a statement two hours before the prime minister’s announcement saying the NHS is already “under tremendous pressure”.

Overwhelmed

“We are not confident that the NHS can handle a further sustained rise in the number of cases and without further action there is a significant risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed in several areas over the next 21 days,” they said in a statement saying that the national warning level is now at the top level five. “Cases are increasing almost everywhere.”

Scotland previously announced a lockdown from midnight. “We are now in a race between the vaccine and the virus,” said Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon as she ordered the Scots to stay at home and that the schools should be closed.

Johnson has made keeping schools open for face-to-face learning a priority for his administration, but scientists warned last month that they should shut down to prevent the virus from spreading. Although children rarely suffer from the disease severely, they can infect their family after getting it from their friends.

It is a far cry from the government’s optimism in early December, when the advent of vaccines was described as the “scientific cavalry” to the rescue.

On Monday, the prime minister insisted that by mid-February he wanted to vaccinate about 14 million elderly and vulnerable people and their carers, including front-line medics.

“If we manage to vaccinate all of those groups, we will remove huge numbers of people from the path of the virus,” Johnson said. And of course, that will eventually allow us to overcome many of the restrictions that we have had to endure for so long.

But there will be a “time lag” between the vaccination of patients and the pressure on NHS relief, Johnson said, adding that he is “cautious about the timetable ahead.”

The dilemma for the government was to balance efforts to stop the spread of the virus and the need to keep shops and businesses open to protect the economy, which has been in its deepest recession since the Great Prince. 1709.

A double dip recession seems to be increasingly inevitable as a result of the new lockdown. Before Johnson’s announcement, most economists expected the UK economy to see some growth this quarter.

According to a tweet from Ludovic Subran, chief economist at Allianz SE. Bloomberg Economics estimates that as much as 6% of the European labor supply could be affected by the narrowing of childcare options.

– With help from Alex Morales, Lucy Meakin and Joe Mayes

(Adds vaccination target, details, comments)