LONDON (Reuters) – The British government said on Wednesday that huge areas of England would be subject to its stricter restrictions on COVID-19 as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country, making the number of cases reach a record level.
Britain reported nearly 40,000 new infections, as the mutated variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original, causes the number of cases and hospital admissions to skyrocket.
The number of registered deaths (744) was also the highest figure since April.
“In this context of growing infection, increasing hospitalizations and growing number of people dying from coronavirus, it is absolutely vital that we act,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a media briefing. “We just can’t have the kind of Christmas we all want.”
Strict social mixing restriction measures were taken on Saturday for London, south-east England and Wales, while plans to lighten sidewalks over Christmas nationwide were drastically reduced or scrapped. completely.
Hancock said as of December 26, many other parts of the south of England would also be added to the maximum level of social mixing restrictions, joining the 16 million already at level 4, while other areas of the country currently at lower levels would also face more closely. curbs.
The governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland have already announced that almost everyone living in these countries would be subject to the highest level of restrictions after Christmas.
Hancock said there was an average of 1909 COVID hospital admissions per day, with 18,943 people currently hospitalized with coronavirus, levels not seen since the April outbreak.
Report by Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge, written by Michael Holden, edited by Elizabeth Piper and Toby Chopra