Coronavirus Europe
Lockdown extended to much of UK
Govt struggling to contain mutant strain of Covid-19 that's spreading rapidly
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A pedestrian entering the London Underground on a nearly deserted Regent Street on Wednesday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed tougher regulations across a large swathe of England to tackle a new strain of the coronavirus which emerged in September. Meanwhile, the government said an even more transmissible variant originating in South Africa has been detected in the UK.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
LONDON • Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed tougher regulations across a large swathe 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 now face the strictest rules in the government's four-tier system from tomorrow, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday in a press conference.
They join London and south-east England, where only essential shops, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, are allowed to stay open, and people are required to stay home except for work, medical appointments or emergencies.
Members of a household are not allowed to meet other people indoors, and can only meet one other person from another household outdoors.
The new variant "is spreading at a dangerous rate", said Mr 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.
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.
The United Kingdom reported 39,237 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the biggest daily increase since the pandemic began. Another 744 deaths were reported within 28 days of a positive test, the highest since the end of April.
While ministers hold out hope that a vaccination programme that started this month means the restrictions can start to be eased in the spring, Mr Hancock warned that the new mutation complicates matters. "This Christmas and the start of 2021 is going to be tough," he said. "The new variant makes everything much harder because it spreads so much faster."
The new virus variant, which emerged in south-east England in September, has alarmed scientists and governments around the world because early analysis suggests it may be as much as 70 per cent more transmissible than other circulating strains.
Countries including France temporarily suspended travel from the UK in response.
Mr Hancock also said that two new cases of an even more transmissible variant originating in South Africa have so far been detected in the UK. He told people who recently returned from South Africa to go into quarantine.
Britain's Transport Minister Grant Shapps ordered flights and arrivals from South Africa to be halted from yesterday.
Meanwhile China said yesterday it will suspend direct flights to and from the UK, citing the emergence of the new virus strain. "After much consideration, China has decided to take reference from others countries and suspend flights to and from the UK," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing.
There are currently eight weekly flights between mainland China and the UK, according to aviation data provider Variflight.
Over 40 other countries have tightened restrictions on travellers arriving from the UK.
The latest lockdown decision in Britain means that from tomorrow, 24 million people will be in tier 4, 25 million in tier 3, and seven million in tier 2.
The just over 2,000 residents of the Isles of Scilly off the south-west coast will be the only people left in tier 1 in England.
Across the UK, the reproduction factor of the virus - the so-called R number - is now between 1.1 and 1.3, the government said in a statement. That means every 10 infected people spread the virus to another 11 to 13 people.
The rate has increased since November, when a lockdown in England helped push it below 1, meaning the outbreak was shrinking.
The situation is now particularly acute in London and eastern England, where the R may be as high as 1.5, according to Wednesday's statement.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
