LONDON (AP) – Millions of people in the UK faced tough new coronavirus restrictions on Saturday, with Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding tougher measures to try to stop a new variant of the virus believed to be spreading faster.
Northern Ireland was shut down for six weeks and Wales also re-imposed restrictions that had been relaxed for Christmas Day.
The number of people under England’s highest restrictions – Level 4 – rose by 6 million on Saturday to 24 million in total, about 43% of the English population. The region included London and many of the surrounding areas.
Indoor household mixing is not allowed, and only essential travel is allowed. Gyms, swimming pools, hairdressers and shops selling non-essential goods must close, and pubs and restaurants can only take out. Business groups say the restrictions will be economically devastating for their members.
Another 570 daily deaths from COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total death toll in Britain to 70,195, the second highest death toll in Europe after Italy. Britain also reported more than 32,700 new cases of the disease on Christmas Day.
Fear of the UK’s new variant has led to a week of frontier chaos. About 1,000 British soldiers spent Christmas Day trying to clear a massive backlog of trucks stranded in South East England after France briefly closed its border with the UK and demanded coronavirus testing from all drivers.
But British transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday that more than 15,000 drivers had been tested and that the backlog at a test site at Manston Airport had been cleared on Sunday morning. Only 36 positive tests had been reported, he said on Twitter.
“A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has worked tirelessly over the past few days to reduce the massive disruption caused by the sudden closure of the French border,” Shapps tweeted.
The first cases of the new UK variant have now been discovered in France and Spain. A French man living in England arrived in France on Dec. 19 and tested positive for the new variant on Friday, the French public health authority said. He has no symptoms and isolates in his home in the central city of Tours.
Meanwhile, health authorities in the Madrid region said they had confirmed the British variant in four people, all of whom are in good health. Enrique Ruiz Escudero, head of regional health, said the new species had arrived when an infected person flew to Madrid airport.
In her annual Christmas address, Queen Elizabeth II, who spent much of the year isolating Prince Philip at Windsor Castle with her husband, delivered a heartfelt message of hope praising the ‘indomitable spirit’ of those who ascended ‘beautifully’ to meet the challenges. of the pandemic.
The 94-year-old queen and her 99-year-old husband, Prince Philip, set a good example by not visiting relatives as usual during Christmas.
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