posted with permission
London Put in Emergency Lockdown as U.K. Fights New Strain (2)
2020-12-19 17:27:48.831 GMT
By Tim Ross and Eddie Spence
(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson imposed a full lockdown on
London and southeast England in a desperate attempt to stop a
new coronavirus strain spreading rapidly over the U.K.
After emergency talks on the virus mutation with his top
officials, the prime minister canceled his plan to ease pandemic
rules for five days during the holiday. Household mixing will be
banned in London and the south-east and socializing restricted
to just Christmas Day across the rest of England.
Residents
across the country were told to stay in their local areas.
The premier announced a new top tier of pandemic curbs will
be brought in for the hot-spot regions around the capital from
Sunday, with all non-essential shops closing and millions of
people ordered to stay at home.
“When the virus changes its method of attack we must change
our method of defense,” Johnson said at a news conference
Saturday.
“Without action the evidence suggests infections would
soar, hospitals would become overwhelmed and many thousands more
would lose their lives.”
Major Blow
The new measures will be a major blow to retail businesses
at what is usually their busiest time of year. The U.K. has
already suffered its deepest recession since the Great Frost of
1709 and ministers have been forced to extend crisis loans and
wage support programs amid fears that unemployment will rocket.
The dramatic escalation in Johnson’s pandemic response was
triggered by a new strain of the virus that is virtually unique
to the U.K. Emerging scientific evidence suggests the new
variant can spread significantly more quickly than previous
strains in circulation and is behind a huge surge in infections
in recent days.
Covid-19 case rates nearly doubled in London over the past
week, with almost 60% of these infections attributed to the new
strain of the virus, according to government officials. Existing
Tier 3 measures in the county of Kent -- the toughest rules in
place at the moment -- have failed to stop the spread. That led
Johnson to introduce a new top level of infection controls, Tier
4.
*T
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Tier 4 London Lockdown Rules from Dec. 20
================================================== ==============
People must stay at home, unless they must travel for work,
education, health careHouseholds are largely banned from mixing,
there will be no Christmas bubblesAll non-essential shops,
indoor leisure and entertainment, and personal care such as hair
salons will closeSocializing limited -- one person can meet one
other from a different household, in a public space outside.
Exceptions apply for support bubblesPeople will be advised not
to enter Tier 4 areas and residents in Tier 4 areas must not
stay overnight away from homeForeign travel should be avoided
for all but essential tripsTier 4 applies to: whole of London,
Kent, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, most of Surrey, Bedfordshire,
Luton, Hertfordshire, most of EssexRules apply for two weeks,
will be reviewed on Dec. 30
*T
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.”
As recently as Friday, Johnson refused to rule out a third
U.K. lockdown to control the spread of the virus. Britain joined
Italy and Austria in tightening curbs during the holiday season,
with all three countries facing rapidly rising case numbers.
The situation has deteriorated dramatically across Europe,
with French President Emmanuel Macron contracting the illness
and countries like Italy and Germany introducing new measures
during the festive period.
Unpredictable Mutations
Leaders are also grappling with another set of challenges
just as vaccines are being rolled out.
Viruses tend to evolve or mutate quickly, particularly
those like flu that require new vaccines to be developed each
year because of changes in key proteins. SARS-CoV-2 also
changes, although generally at a slower pace than some other
viruses because it has a self-correcting mechanism that keeps
its genetic sequence relatively stable.
Other variants in the coronavirus have been reported in the
past, including one in minks, which are susceptible to the
virus. That was feared to be highly transmissible and was
reported to the World Health Organization. Millions of farmed
mink were culled, although as of Nov. 20 the WHO said the most
worrying strain linked to the animals is no longer circulating
in humans.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Tim Ross in London at
tross54@bloomberg.net;
Eddie Spence in London at
espence11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Flavia Krause-Jackson at
fjackson@bloomberg.net
Sara Marley, Neil Callanan
