British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a remote press conference to update the country on the post-Brexit trade deal, inside 10 Downing Street in central London on 24 December 2020.
Paul Grover | AFP | Getty Images
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said England is embracing a national closure it hopes will be tough enough to embrace a new, infectious version of Covid-19.
People can’t leave their homes to buy for essentials, work if they can’t from home, exercise, go to a doctor and escape domestic abuse, he said in a statement Monday night. Primary, secondary and colleges will move to remote learning Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.
“I fully understand the inconvenience and distress that this change will bring to millions of people and parents across the country,” said Johnson. “The problem is that schools are not dangerous for children. The problem is that schools can act as vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread between homes. “
The changes come as the UK embraces a more portable variant of Covid-19. To date, the country has recorded more than 2.6 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 75,000 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, the UK registered 58,784 new cases, and they have now reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for seven days in a row.
Johnson warned earlier Monday that the UK had “difficult, difficult weeks to come and that there was” no question “that tougher measures would be taken.
Prior to the news, more than three-quarters of England was living under “Tier 4” restrictions, the most severe in the country.
On Monday afternoon, Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon announced an order to stay at the new home for the country’s citizens from midnight. Schools in Scotland will be closed until early February.
Kier Starmer, leader of the UK’s main Labor party, admitted on Sunday that Johnson must “impose national restrictions within the next 24 hours.”
Coronavirus vaccines are the only clear spot in a pandemic that is still rampant across the UK and much of the West. On Monday, the UK began introducing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after it began rolling out a Pfizer / BioNTech bullet in December.
The UK government has decided to implement a 12-week delay between the first and second doses of all Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca coronfirus vaccines, in a bid to cover as many people as possible .
The UK’s Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said on Sunday it supported the move, with conditions, but the British Medical Association has criticized the UK’s decision to delay second doses.