British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Sunday that tougher blockade restrictions in England are likely in the coming weeks as the country moves towards the new variant of coronavirus which determined the infection rates at the highest levels recorded.
Johnson, however, insisted he had “no doubt” that schools were safe and urged parents to send their children back to class in areas of England where they could. The unions that represent teachers have called for schools to turn to distance learning at least a few more weeks due to the new variant, which scientists have said is up to 70% more contagious.
Britain is battling an acute outbreak, with more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections one day in the last six days. On Sunday, it registered another 54,990 cases, slightly lower than the daily record of the previous day, of 57,725. The country also recorded another 454 virus-related deaths, reaching 75,024. According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the United Kingdom alternates with Italy, the most affected European nation.
“We are fully committed to doing whatever it takes to control the virus, which could involve tougher action in the coming weeks,” Johnson said in an interview with BBC News. “Obviously, there are a number of tougher measures that we should consider.”
Johnson acknowledged that school closures, shutdowns and a total ban on mixing in households could be on the agenda for areas with the greatest stress.
London and the south-east of England are facing extremely high levels of new infections and it is speculated that restrictions there will have to be tightened to control the virus. In some parts of the British capital and surrounding areas, there are more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.
Johnson’s Conservative government uses a coronavirus restriction system. Most of England is already at the highest Tier 4 level, which means closing non-essential stores and places such as gyms and leisure centers, as well as home training.
“What we’re using now is the leveling system, which is a very tough system and unfortunately probably about to get tougher to keep things under control,” he said. “We will review it and we have the prospect that vaccines will go down in their tens of millions, giving people literally life and hope.”
Keir Starmer, the leader of the main opposition Labor Party, urged Johnson to bring additional national restrictions the next day, although he stopped calling for schools to be closed because he said he did not want to “add to the chaos” that is likely to arise. months.
“The virus is clearly out of control,” Starmer said. “We cannot allow the prime minister to exhaust the next two or three weeks and then bring a national blockade that is inevitable.”
Starmer also said that more schools are inevitable to close and called on the government to develop a plan for both students and working parents.
An area where the UK has moved rapidly is on the vaccination front. He was the first to start vaccinating people over the age of 80 and health workers on December 8 with Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Last week, regulators approved another vaccine produced by Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is cheaper and easier to use than the Pfizer vaccine.
Hundreds of new vaccination sites are set to be launched this week, while the National Health Service expands its immunization program with the Oxford-AstraZeneca blow. Officials say about 530,000 doses of the new vaccine will be in effect Monday, as the country moves toward its goal of vaccinating 2 million people a week as soon as possible.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be given to a small number of hospitals in the first few days, so that the authorities can look for any side effects. Hundreds of new vaccination sites – both in hospitals and in local doctors’ offices – are set to be launched this week, joining the more than 700 already in operation, NHS England said.
In a move from practices in the US and elsewhere, the UK intends to provide people with secondary doses of both vaccines within 12 weeks of the first shot, rather than 21 days, to speed up immunizations to as many people as possible.
“My mother, as well as you or your older loved ones, could be affected by this decision, but it is still a fair thing to do for the nation as a whole,” said the government’s deputy medical director, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam. , said in an article for the newspaper Mail on Sunday.