Faced with the very rapid spread of the new coronavirus variant “50-70% more contagious”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, January 04, 2021, during a televised speech, a reconfiguration of England.
England will reconfigure itself on Wednesday at 12:01 am. The announcement was made by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “It’s clear that we all need to do more together to control this new variant as the vaccination unfolds. That’s why in England we need a national lockdown,” he said before adding, “As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more Covid-related pressure than at any time since this pandemic began. While most of the country is already subject to extreme measures, it is clear that we need to do more together to master this new variant.” And the Prime Minister continued: “We must therefore move towards a national containment, which is drastic enough to contain this variant. That means this government is giving you another instruction to stay home.”
Boris Johnson said the schools would be closed as of Tuesday and that he would only be allowed to leave his home to go to his workplace when it is not possible to telework, make essential purchases or exercise. According to Boris Johnson, if the vaccination campaign goes as planned and containment has an impact on contaminations and deaths, it should be possible to phase out these restrictions starting in mid-February. However, he urged caution on this schedule.
The toll of the epidemic in the United Kingdom as a whole, of which each of the four entities is responsible for health, exceeds 75,000 deaths if one takes into account the deaths that occurred within 28 days after a positive test. Despite the vaccination campaign launched a month ago, first with the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, a daily record of 58,784 new infections was announced on Monday.
We are not convinced that the NHS (public health service) can handle another sustained increase in cases. Without further action, there is a significant risk that it will be flooded over the next 21 days,” said England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s chief medical officers in a joint statement. And on Sunday, Labour opposition leader Keir Starmer urged the government to implement a national reconfiguration “within 24 hours”, saying the virus was “clearly out of control” and should not be delayed.
