To fight new COVID strain, UK PM Johnson reverses Christmas plans for millions

[rooster59]

To fight new COVID strain, UK PM Johnson reverses Christmas plans for millions

By Michael Holden and Kate Holton

 

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks on during a news conference in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, inside 10 Downing Street, London ,Britain, December 19, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Pool

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed an effective lockdown on over 16 million people in England and reversed plans to ease curbs over Christmas, saying Britain was dealing with a new coronavirus strain up to 70% more transmissible than the original.

 

Although Johnson and his scientific advisors believe vaccines will still be effective, and the new strain is not more deadly or more serious in terms of the illness caused, he said on Saturday the government had to take urgent action.

 

The number of cases in England has soared in the last two weeks because of the virus variant.

 

Johnson tore up plans to allow three households to mix indoors for five days over the festive period, and said London and southeast England, which are currently in the highest level of a three-tier system of rules, would now be placed in a new Tier 4 level, similar to those of a recent national lockdown.

 

"It is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned," Johnson told a news conference. "I sincerely believe there is no alternative open to me."

 

People in Tier 4 - 16.4 million and about a third of the population of England - will be required to stay at home except for essential reasons such as work, and non-essential retail will close, as will indoor leisure and entertainment.

 

Social mixing will be limited to meeting one other person in an outdoor space. The new rules will come into effect from midnight on Saturday.

 

Johnson, whose initial response to the pandemic has been criticised for being too slow, had resisted calls to change plans for the Christmas relaxation, saying on Wednesday it would be "frankly inhuman" to ban it.

 

However, those now in Tier 4 will not be allowed to mix with others over Christmas. And everyone else in England will now be allowed to see friends and family only on Christmas Day itself, Dec. 25.

 

'CONFUSION'

 

"At this time of national crisis, the British people want clear, decisive leadership," opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter. "All we get from Boris Johnson is confusion and indecision."

 

Within minutes of Johnson's announcement, shoppers hit the streets for a final attempt to stock up on Christmas presents and supplies.

 

"It was fairly quiet all day, then suddenly there was this mass of people," said one sales assistant at a large department store at Westfield shopping centre in West London, one of Europe's largest.

 

The UK's other nations, whose response to the pandemic differs from that of England at times, also took action.

 

Scotland said on Saturday it would impose a ban on travel to the rest of the United Kingdom, and the Christmas easing would be limited to Dec. 25 only. All of Wales will go into Tier 4 from midnight, but two households can mix on Christmas Day.

 

Business leaders said the government needed to provide emergency financial support.

 

"The consequences of this decision will be severe," said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.

 

'TAKEN OFF'

 

Like other countries in Europe, Britain is battling to contain new waves of the virus. It reported 27,052 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the total over 2 million, and 534 more deaths, taking the overall official toll to more than 67,000.

 

There has been a surge in infections sparked by the new virus strain - VUI202012/01.

 

"This virus has taken off, it's moving fast and it's leading inevitably to a sharp increase in hospital admissions," Britain's Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance said.

 

England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the authorities had alerted the World Health Organization and were continuing to analyse the data.

 

"There's no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness," Johnson said. "There's no evidence to suggest the vaccine will be any less effective against the new variant.

 

Other countries have also reported variants of the virus. South Africa said on Friday one such strain was driving a second wave of infections there.

 

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, William Schomberg and Yann Tessier; Editing by Catherine Evans and Frances Kerry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-20

 

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[edwinchester]

3 days ago this charlatan was ridiculing the leader of the opposition for suggesting not easing lockdown conditions just for Christmas when it was obvious cases are starting to get out of control again. And now yet another reversal from this incompetent opportunist.

[Jack Mountain]

Psst Boris, maybe you can bomb the virus as you do with other foreign entities at funerals and wedding parties ... wink wink.

Collateral damage? Who cares ... BJ the new WC. You see the picture?

[sungod]

3 hours ago, edwinchester said:

3 days ago this charlatan was ridiculing the leader of the opposition for suggesting not easing lockdown conditions just for Christmas when it was obvious cases are starting to get out of control again. And now yet another reversal from this incompetent opportunist.

Do you believe he is wrong to do this then?

[mlkik]

Thankfully I got out in time and am now on my 15th day in ASQ and leave quarantine tomorrow to go back to a much more normal life.

[2530Ubon]

This imbecile will single handedly destroy the UK. He's a renowned liar and part of the reason he's struggling to get a Brexit deal is because he lies all the time. Now he's been caught lying about Christmas plans.

 

His tier plan didn't work last time, and led to a second national shutdown. Why not double down on a failed policy? What a moron.

The last three days have seen an average of 30,000+ new infections with 500+ deaths a day due to his moronic handling of COVID. Bear in mind that the weekend is also slowly reported, so the figures are probably much higher, and Mondays figures will be astronomical.

 

And please cut your hair. Your supposed to be the Prime Minister of the UK, not a clown on a windy day.

 

[apetley]

4 minutes ago, sungod said:

Do you believe he is wrong to do this then?

He and his gang should never have said there could be a loosening of the rules for Christmas. The evidence was against it but he said ok anyway. Now just 3 days after arguing against the Labour Leaders position he has done yet another u-turn.

His administration's leadership has been disastrous and has cost a huge number of needless deaths.

[bannork]

19 minutes ago, sungod said:

Do you believe he is wrong to do this then?

The idiot was warned by scientists his 5 open days at Christmas was madness, youngsters passing the virus onto granny, but the fool went ahead. 

Now millions will have to suddenly change their plans due to his obstinacy.

[Chomper Higgot]

18 minutes ago, 2530Ubon said:

This imbecile will single handedly destroy the UK. He's a renowned liar and part of the reason he's struggling to get a Brexit deal is because he lies all the time. Now he's been caught lying about Christmas plans.

 

His tier plan didn't work last time, and led to a second national shutdown. Why not double down on a failed policy? What a moron.

The last three days have seen an average of 30,000+ new infections with 500+ deaths a day due to his moronic handling of COVID. Bear in mind that the weekend is also slowly reported, so the figures are probably much higher, and Mondays figures will be astronomical.

 

And please cut your hair. Your supposed to be the Prime Minister of the UK, not a clown on a windy day.

 

Not quite single handedly, he had help.

[2530Ubon]

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Not quite single handedly, he had help.

True, him and his conservative chums! Jacob Rees Mogg is lapping all of this up, like the oversized cat that he is.

[from the home of CC]

5 hours ago, apetley said:

He and his gang should never have said there could be a loosening of the rules for Christmas. The evidence was against it but he said ok anyway. Now just 3 days after arguing against the Labour Leaders position he has done yet another u-turn.

His administration's leadership has been disastrous and has cost a huge number of needless deaths.

imo it's this incessant need for politicians to try to please all due to the sensitivity of being criticized in public that leads to this decisions which cost lives..

[from the home of CC]

what upsets me is that I keep reading in various outlets that a majority of UK citizens are not going to change plans and that the police say they will not enforce rules that ruin Christmas. Therefore in Jan. and Feb. we'll be reading about worsening hospitalization numbers and death rates (though the 3000 deaths a week now are horrific enough). Yet, many of these heartaches could be mitigated with a little common sense. The trouble seems to be is that many adults are acting very childlike when it comes to this holiday and the restrictions which should have been already in place - perhaps it's time to put 'your' needs on the back burner and grow the hell up...

[GrandPapillon]

Boris doing a 180? what a surprise ????

 

hope for a Brexit deal anytime now ????

[robblok]

I hope they EU puts a high tariff on the English corvid strain to keep it out ????

[GrandPapillon]

1 minute ago, robblok said:

I hope they EU puts a high tariff on the English corvid strain to keep it out ????

don't give Barnier new ideas to derail the immediate pending deal, the UK was about to surrender to our demands ????

[transam]

5 hours ago, 2530Ubon said:

This imbecile will single handedly destroy the UK. He's a renowned liar and part of the reason he's struggling to get a Brexit deal is because he lies all the time. Now he's been caught lying about Christmas plans.

 

His tier plan didn't work last time, and led to a second national shutdown. Why not double down on a failed policy? What a moron.

The last three days have seen an average of 30,000+ new infections with 500+ deaths a day due to his moronic handling of COVID. Bear in mind that the weekend is also slowly reported, so the figures are probably much higher, and Mondays figures will be astronomical.

 

And please cut your hair. Your supposed to be the Prime Minister of the UK, not a clown on a windy day.

 

You haven't mentioned one word about the UK tossers who didn't take any notice about staying safe and  spreading the virus..

Why is that...? ????

[stevenl]

32 minutes ago, transam said:

You haven't mentioned one word about the UK tossers who didn't take any notice about staying safe and  spreading the virus..

Why is that...? ????

For once I'll agree with you. Discipline is lacking, not just in the UK, but in the whole of Europe and the USA as well. Me is much more important than us.

[sungod]

5 hours ago, bannork said:

The idiot was warned by scientists his 5 open days at Christmas was madness, youngsters passing the virus onto granny, but the fool went ahead. 

Now millions will have to suddenly change their plans due to his obstinacy.

He was trying to give the British people their Christmas after a terrible year, it didn't work out that way and he followed the advice of the scientists.

 

Very easy to criticize from your arm chair in Thailand.

[sungod]

6 hours ago, apetley said:

He and his gang should never have said there could be a loosening of the rules for Christmas. The evidence was against it but he said ok anyway. Now just 3 days after arguing against the Labour Leaders position he has done yet another u-turn.

His administration's leadership has been disastrous and has cost a huge number of needless deaths.

Stammer has no position, that's the problem.

[2530Ubon]

3 hours ago, sungod said:

He was trying to give the British people their Christmas after a terrible year, it didn't work out that way and he followed the advice of the scientists.

 

Very easy to criticize from your arm chair in Thailand.

 

Before Johnson reversed himself, the scientists were clamouring that it was a terrible idea. He didn't listen. Why would he listen - he was told the tier plan wouldn't work, but hey, it didn't work the first time so let's try it again.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54592112

 

 

Quote

 

Christmas is unlikely to be the "usual celebration" of "families coming together", a leading scientist has said.

Jeremy Farrar, who sits on the Sage committee that advises the government, warned it would be a "tough" Christmas.

 

 

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/christmas-bubbles-covid-rules-scientists_uk_5fbe1506c5b68ca87f7fea85

 

Quote

Top UK scientists say Boris Johnson’s plan to relax coronavirus restrictions at Christmas is “throwing fuel on the Covid fire” and could cause a third wave of the pandemic.

 

[simple1]

One assumes the current vaccines cannot be deployed against this new strain of Covid-19, so more delays ahead to get matters under control.

[stevenl]

17 minutes ago, simple1 said:

One assumes the current vaccines cannot be deployed against this new strain of Covid-19, so more delays ahead to get matters under control.

Your assumption may be correct, but is IMO premature.

[OJAS]

6 hours ago, 2530Ubon said:

And please cut your hair. Your supposed to be the Prime Minister of the UK, not a clown on a windy day.

 

Little hope of that happening imminently, I fear, since all barbers and other non-essential businesses in Tier 4 areas like London are now closed until further notice.☹️

 

But maybe Carrie is a dab hand with the hair clippers?? ????

Edited December 20, 2020 by OJAS

[onthedarkside]

A non-news media social media video post has been removed.

 

Quote

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[stevenl]

2 hours ago, robblok said:

I hope they EU puts a high tariff on the English corvid strain to keep it out ????

Seems it is too late for that.

[transam]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

For once I'll agree with you. Discipline is lacking, not just in the UK, but in the whole of Europe and the USA as well. Me is much more important than us.

[onthedarkside]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

One assumes the current vaccines cannot be deployed against this new strain of Covid-19, so more delays ahead to get matters under control.

 

From the OP report:

 

Quote

"There's no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness," Johnson said. "There's no evidence to suggest the vaccine will be any less effective against the new variant.

 

[oldhippy]

The Netherlands and Belgium have now stopped all airtraffic with the UK. Also no more Eurostar.

[robblok]

14 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Seems it is too late for that.

I know i read. I was just joking.

[robblok]

2 hours ago, transam said:

You haven't mentioned one word about the UK tossers who didn't take any notice about staying safe and  spreading the virus..

Why is that...? ????

They like to have freedom... (where have I heard this before)

 

Anyway stupid tossers like that are everywhere not just UK. My parents live by the rules (younger then you probably but in the risk group). Young people don't seem to care much about the rules but the older do. However if not enough participate in the rules then they are useless.