Coronavirus strain spreading at ‘dangerous rate’ in Britain
- With more than 68,000 deaths from the virus, the United Kingdom is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe
- Britain also introduced restrictions on travel from South Africa over the spread of yet another variant of virus
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed tougher regulations across a large swath of England in an effort to stamp down on the mutant strain of coronavirus that’s spreading quickly across the country.
Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, most of Hampshire and the remainder of Essex will face the strictest rules in the government’s 4-tier system, after midnight on December 26, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday.
They join London and southeast England, meaning non-essential shops will have to close and socialising is further curtailed.
The new variant “is spreading at a dangerous rate,” said Hancock, putting the rise in cases in the past week at 57 per cent. “The direction is clear and in many cases quite stark.”
The government is struggling to bring the virus back under control after the new mutant strain began spreading rapidly in London and surrounding areas.
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UK detects ‘more transmissible’ variant of coronavirus linked to South Africa
After an England-wide lockdown last month halted growth in infections, the virus has since started spreading exponentially again, risking overwhelming the National Health Service as cases tick upwards.
