Coronavirus: UK imposes stricter rules amid new Covid-19 strain
- All non-essential shops will close and the measures ban household mixing in London and the southeast
- Scientific evidence suggests the new variant is behind a huge surge in infections in recent days
The measures ban household mixing in the capital and the southeast, and restrict socialising to just Christmas Day across the rest of England. Residents across the country were told to keep to their local areas.
Johnson had originally planned to ease pandemic rules for five days during the holiday, but made an abrupt change of tack after emergency talks on the virus mutation with his top officials. Emerging scientific evidence suggests the new variant – which currently appears virtually unique to the UK – can spread significantly more quickly than previous strains in circulation and is behind a huge surge in infections in recent days.
“When the virus changes its method of attack we must change our method of defence,” Johnson said at a news conference on Saturday. “Without action the evidence suggests infections would soar, hospitals would become overwhelmed and many thousands more would lose their lives.”
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Covid-19 case rates nearly doubled in London over the past week, with almost 60 per cent of these infections attributed to the new strain, according to government officials.
In response, Johnson announced a new top tier of pandemic curbs for hotspot regions around the capital. All non-essential shops will close and 16.4 million people were ordered to stay at home.
The measures will be a major blow to retail businesses at what is usually their busiest time of year. The UK has already suffered its deepest recession since the Great Frost of 1709 and ministers have been forced to extend crisis loans and wage support programmes amid fears that unemployment will rocket.
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The toughest Tier 3 measures in the county of Kent have failed to stop the spread, prompting Johnson to introduce a new top level of infection controls, Tier 4.
Reaction to Johnson’s change in plan was swift – last week, he dismissed calls from Labour leader Keir Starmer for tighter restrictions and urged Britons to have a “merry little Christmas.” At least two Sunday newspapers published front pages noting, “Christmas is cancelled,” with pictures of a downbeat Johnson. Images showed hundreds of people at St. Pancras station waiting for trains to take them north and out of the capital.
A spokesman said Apple has temporarily shut 16 stores in the UK following restrictions introduced by the government in London.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that the new variant was faster spreading, and likely behind the alarming climb of case numbers around the capital and southeast of the country.
“There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this,” Whitty said. “Given this latest development it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission.”
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“We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding,” Whitty added.
Viruses mutate regularly, and scientists have found thousands different of mutations among samples of the virus causing Covid-19. But many of these changes have no effect on how easily the virus spreads or how severe symptoms are.
Even when a variant seems to be showing up more often someplace, it can be purely by chance. Scientists would need to study the genetic changes to see if they are influencing disease spread.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, told reporters after receiving notification from England this week that the UN health agency had “no evidence this variant behaves differently” and that it was similar to a variant initially reported among mink in Europe. She said scientists would study the virus strain to see if there might be any difference in how it prompts an immune response in people.
The Dutch government on Sunday banned all passenger flights from Britain until January 1 after finding a case in the Netherlands of a new coronavirus strain that has been circulating in the UK.
The health ministry said it “recommends that any introduction of this virus strain from Britain be limited as much as possible by limiting and/or controlling passenger movements from the United Kingdom.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press
