UK: Britain toughened its coronavirus restrictions on Tuesday, with England and Scotland going into another full lockdown, as a new variant spreads.
Surging numbers of positive cases, and fears the variant form of the virus is running out of control, prompted tougher action, including the closure of schools.
The public has been ordered to stay at home and work remotely, if possible, and only to go out for essential shopping, medical reasons or to exercise.
Justifying the measures, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that more than one million people in England -- or two percent of the population -- now had the virus.
A further 60,916 people tested positive in the last 24 hours across the country on Tuesday, while the number of people in hospital was now 40 percent higher than at the April peak last year.
But Johnson pledged that a vaccination drive would see the most vulnerable inoculated by mid-February, paving the way for a gradual return to normality. More than 1.3 million people across the UK have already received either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine since early December, including 650,000 people aged over 80, he said.
Nearly 1,000 vaccination sites will be operational by end of this week.
England's chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said the timetable for the vaccination drive -- Britain's biggest -- was "realistic, but not easy".
Whitty hoped it would be possible to reach next winter without reimposing restrictions but added: "We just need to be aware of the fact this is not a problem that just disappears."
Overall, Britain has been among the worst hit in the world by the outbreak, with nearly 2.8 million cases and more than 76,000 deaths. Another 830 deaths were recorded on Tuesday.
- AFP
