British Prime Minister Boris Johnson placed England into a full six-week lockdown on Monday night as the UK’s top medics warned the NHS would be overwhelmed within 21 days without tougher measures against the faster-spreading variant.
In a sombre televised address, the Prime Minister said the nation was at a “critical moment” and faced many tough weeks ahead, with hospitals already dealing with 40 per cent more patients than during the first peak in April.
The new lockdown came into force on Monday evening, with regulations laid into law expected on Tuesday. It will be in place until the middle of February at the earliest.
Everyone in England must, under law, stay at home unless leaving the house for restricted government-approved reasons, which include outdoor exercise, shopping for food and other essentials such as medicine, going to work if it is impossible to do so from home, leave home to provide care for a vulnerable person or attend medical appointments or seek medical care.
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Schools closed under lockdown
Despite the PM saying on Sunday that schools were “safe”, all schools, colleges and universities will close in England from Tuesday, except for children of key workers and vulnerable youngsters. Nurseries and other childcare settings will remain open.
Police will have legal powers including fines or dispersal orders to ensure people comply with the new rules. Unlike under the November lockdown and tier 4, when outdoor exercise was unlimited, people are advised to leave the house for exercise just once a day.
Those unable to work from home are likely to include the construction sector and critical and key workers, including supermarket staff.
Evidence of surging virus cases
The Prime Minister acted after being presented with fresh details of soaring figures by chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, including evidence that the new variant has now spread across the UK.
Following advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre, the four UK Chief Medical Officers and NHS England Medical Director recommended that the UK Alert Level should move from Level 4 to Level 5 for the first time. Level 5 means that the NHS is under threat of being overwhelmed within 21 days.
Mr Johnson had been under pressure to impose a full lockdown for days amid growing evidence that the four-tier system was not enough to contain the new variant.
New cases of coronavirus in the UK had surpassed 50,000 for seven days running, while 27.9 per cent of tests in London are coming back positive.
Coronavirus numbers soar
A Downing Street source said the new variant was “spreading in a significant way”. On 4 January, there were 26,626 Covid patients in hospital in England, an increase of over 30 per cent on same day one week before.
Across the UK, according to results by specimen date, there were 80,664 positive tests on 29 December, and a further 65,571 on 30 December. The case rate for the UK is now 518 per 100,000.
The British public broadly supports the decision to take England and Scotland back into another lockdown, according to new polling from YouGov. 79 per cent of those surveyed thought it was the right policy with just 16 per cent opposed, while 62 per cent said it was wrong to try and re-open English schools this week.
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