Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday ordered a new national closure for England in an effort to contain a new variant of the coronavirus. In a televised speech, Johnson described the coming weeks as a “critical moment” in the country’s fight against COVID-19. The Scottish leader declared similar measures the day before.
The new measure forces the closure of all schools, blinds of personal care services such as hairdressers and hairdressers, and prohibits eating in person in restaurants. While fines are applied to those who leave home without valid excuses, there are exemptions that allow people to go out for food or medical supplies, to and from daycare, or in genuine emergencies.
Residents are asked to limit outdoor exercise once a day. Residents in England can only meet another person from a different home to exercise outdoors and social distancing must be maintained.
Johnson said he understood the “annoyances and anxieties” that school closures would have for families, many of whom had sent elementary school children to school before Monday in what turned out to be a one-day school week and for educators.
“We’ve been doing everything we can to keep schools open because we know how important they are every day in education for children’s life chances,” Johnson said. “The problem is not that schools are unsafe for children, as children are very unlikely to be severely affected by the new variant of COVID; the problem is that schools can act as vectors of transmission and cause the virus spreads among households “.
The new variant of COVID-19 was first detected late last year in the south-east of England and is fueling a dramatic increase in cases. More than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus are reported daily and hospitals in some regions are already overwhelmed by the influx of patients. Johnson said the new variant was 50 to 70 percent more transmissible, making it easier to capture and transmit to others.
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Prior to the announcement, more than two-thirds of Britain had already been subject to stricter “level 4” restrictions. “Critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, I hope we can constantly get out of the blockade,” Johnson said.
The fast-release variant of COVID-19 has already appeared elsewhere in the world. Most recently, it has been detected in New York, California and Colorado, in patients with no history of recent travel. According to the leading infectious disease expert in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, there are “probably more cases” of the new strain not yet detected in the US
More than 2.7 million people have contracted COVID-19 in the UK, with more than 75,000 dead, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Tucker Reals and Charlie D’Agata contributed to this report.