LONDON (Reuters) – London and South East England may stay under tighter curbs for some time to stop a rapidly spreading new strain of coronavirus, the UK Health Minister suggested on Sunday, as COVID-19 cases will appear a day. long have risen by a record number.
The government has been criticized for abruptly scrapping plans to ease restrictions before Christmas and for imposing an effective lockdown on more than 16 million people. Health Minister Matt Hancock defended the decision, saying evidence showing the new strain caused spiral cases had forced the action.
The variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transferable than the original, also raised concerns about wider distribution. Several European countries, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, said they are taking measures to prevent people from arriving from Britain, including bans on flights and trains.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tore up plans to allow three households to mingle in for five days during the festive season, imposing new Tier 4-level curbs – similar to a national lockdown in March – on London and South East England.
Hancock suggested that the tougher measures – requiring about a third of the population of England to stay at home, except for essential reasons such as work – will remain in effect until vaccinations become more widely available.
“We still have a long way to go to fix this,” Hancock told Sky News.
“In essence, we have to roll out that vaccine to keep people safe. Considering how much faster this new variant is spreading, it will be very difficult to control until we roll out the vaccine. “
Britain began vaccinating people earlier this month with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The number of cases in Britain rose by 35,928 on Sunday, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, with 326 more deaths, bringing the official toll to more than 67,000.
ALARM BELLS
Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer told a press conference that while he supported the new measures, “the prime minister again waited until the eleventh hour to make this decision.
“The alarm bells have been ringing for weeks, but the Prime Minister chose to ignore them … He told the country to go ahead and have a Merry Christmas … and yet three days later he tells millions of families to tear it up. plans, ”he said, referring to comments Johnson made on Wednesday.
Shortly after Johnson announced the changes on Saturday afternoon, some in London went to train stations to try to visit relatives at Christmas, and there were scenes of crowding out – something Hancock called “totally irresponsible.”
The new rules came into effect on Sunday.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps called on people under the new restrictions not to travel, saying more transportation police were deployed to ensure that “only those who need to make essential journeys can travel safely.”
The other countries of the UK, whose response to the pandemic differs from that of England, have also taken action. Scotland imposed a travel ban to the rest of the UK, effectively closing the border, and the Christmas relaxation will be limited to December 25th.
All of Wales will move to level 4 from midnight, but on Christmas Day, two households can mingle.
Non-essential stores, as well as places like gyms and hair salons, were closed in the Tier 4 areas and some companies called the new measures a “real kick in the teeth”.
Hancock said the government recognized that the economic impact of the new measures would be “severe”, but that it had to weigh that against the health consequences.
The United States is tracking the new species in Britain, multiple US officials said, adding that it was unclear whether the mutated variety had made its way to America.
Other countries have also identified a new variant of the coronavirus, including South Africa.
An epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, Emma Hodcroft, said on Twitter that the strains in Britain and South Africa were not the same.
Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich; Editing by John Stonestreet and Frances Kerry