Londoners boarded trains and highways on Saturday night as they hurried to leave the capital in anticipation of new restrictions announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson has announced that London and much of South East England will go into Tier 4 Covid-19 restrictions on Sunday.
Level 4 is the highest possible level of restrictions in England, effectively renewing the lockdown in the spring.
Saturday evening at 7 p.m., there were no free seats on trains departing from various stations in the capital, London, PA News Agency reports. Travelers complained that they could not socially distance themselves in the rail cars.
The scenes were condemned by politicians and public health experts. London Mayor Sadiq Khan called the introduction of the restrictions “devastating” in an interview with the BBC, adding that scenes at London’s train stations were “a direct result of the chaotic way the announcement was made and the late stage. of it.
I understand why people want to come back to see their moms, dads and older relationships, but I think it’s wrong, ”he said.
He spoke directly to Londoners who were leaving London and said that while they may not have broken the rules, they may have gotten the virus out of London and may have put “your mother, father, older relationships” at risk.
Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, board chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA), said such scenes would not have been seen “in East Asian countries that have managed pandemics well in the past,” adding that the government should have ensured that there was mass control. measures.
“While Christmas will clearly be ruined for many, the worst we can do is infect our loved ones,” he told Sky News.
UK Health Minister Matt Hancock defended the government’s actions against Sky, saying they had no choice to act after receiving new scientific evidence that a new strain of the virus was spreading faster than others in the UK.
“It was our duty to act,” he said. “We acted very quickly and decisively with the announcements made by the Prime Minister yesterday.”
New species: England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned Saturday that a newly identified variant of Covid-19 can “spread more rapidly” than previous strains of the virus.
“This is spreading very quickly now,” Johnson warned. “I say with a heavy heart that we cannot go on for Christmas as planned.”
As with other new variants or strains of Covid-19, this one has a genetic fingerprint that makes it easy to track, and it’s one that’s now common. That does not mean that the mutation has spread it more easily, nor does it necessarily mean that this variation is more dangerous.
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