EDINBURG, Scotland: A few weeks ago people in Britain were planning a relatively normal Christmas time with their families thanks to relaxed pandemic rules. Now, with the mutant variant of coronavirus fueling an almost vertical rise in new daily cases, large parts of the country are starting the new year and once again facing the hardest of blockages.
The speed of change has been amazing and terrifying. By the end of November, after a national shutdown in England, the number of British cases had fallen to around 13,000 a day. The country has now registered more than 50,000 cases for six days in a row.
By comparison, England reported 476.9 cases per 100,000 people last week, a rate nearly five times worse than California, the most affected U.S. state, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. United States, records 98.8 cases per 100,000. The message to the world seems clear: the new variant is spreading faster, and without strict preventive measures, this will happen to you too.
Britain’s rise comes despite the planned Christmas relaxation easing, schools closing at Christmas and the largest city, London, has been at the first blockade level for two weeks. Experts have been warning for weeks that the new variant is spreading so fast that the rules that could have worked last year are no longer enough. Now political leaders are stepping down to figure out how to back it up or face a catastrophe.
Scotland has come first. His decentralized nationalist government had already closed the border with England after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the new variant worked in the south. On Monday, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a closure as strict as the spring. His message: stay home and keep your kids out of school, or we’ll end up as screwed up as England.
Sturgeon has estimated that Scotland is now about four weeks behind the rise of England, but the new rules – which require Scots by law not to leave their homes, but for some essential purposes – are designed to prevent the country escapes control like its neighbors. Scotland records 188.3 cases per 100,000, less than half the rate in England in the last seven days, according to government data.
Meanwhile, Johnson has been under intense pressure to prevaricate, while cases in England have seen one point to another. This may end on Monday as the prime minister is due to address the nation and has warned that the measures are bound to be tightened. However, it is unclear what the new action will be.
Asked how long it took him to do something, Johnson said, “What we were waiting for is to see the impact of level four measures on the virus, and it’s still a little unclear. But if we look at the figures, there is no doubt that we will have to take tougher action and announce them in time. “
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted that the rules that have been in place since the spring closure are “no longer strong enough”.
Even more troubling, however, is Hancock’s belief that the new British variant is perhaps not even the greatest threat facing an already engulfed nation. He said on Monday that he was “incredibly concerned” about a South African variant that has been considered even more transmissible than the British one, and that two cases have been confirmed in Britain.
Hancock told the BBC on Monday: “This is a very, very important problem … even one more problem than the new UK variant.”
One reason for this concern may be that British experts have openly questioned whether current vaccines will work with the South African mutant. John Bell, a University of Oxford professor and government adviser on vaccines, has said there is a “big question” over whether existing vaccines will work with the South African variant.
It is clear that Britain is in a bad situation; what is much less clear is whether this is as bad as it will get, whether new measures will be enough to control the mutant virus, and what happens if it takes over an even worse one.