Fireworks and drones illuminate the night sky over the The O2 in London as they form a light display as London's normal New Year's Eve fireworks display was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: PA
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered England into a new national lockdown to try to slow a COVID-19 surge threatening to overwhelm parts of the health system before a vaccine program reaches a critical mass.
Mr Johnson says a new, more contagious variant of coronavirus is spreading at great speed and urgent action is needed to slow it down.
“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than any time since the start of the pandemic,” the UK PM said in a televised address on Tuesday morning (Australian time), ditching his regional approach to fighting the pandemic.
“With most of the country already under extreme measures, it’s clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control.”
Tweet from @BorisJohnson
The actions come after several failed policies to suppress the virus, but carry on life as normal.
Britain grapples with the world’s sixth highest death toll (75,544 people had died by Tuesday) and cases have hit a new high.
The country’s chief medical officers said the spread of COVID-19 risked overwhelming parts of the health system within 21 days.
The surge has been driven by the new variant, officials said, and while they acknowledged the pandemic was spreading faster than expected, they say there is also light at the end of the tunnel – vaccinations.
Mr Johnson earlier touted a scientific “triumph” as Britain became the first country in the world to start vaccinating its population with Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot.
On Monday (local time) dialysis patient Brian Pinker received the first vaccination outside of a trial.
“I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud it is one that was invented in Oxford,” said the 82-year-old retired maintenance manager.
But even with the vaccines being rolled out, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has kept rising.
A record 58,784 new cases of the coronavirus were reported on Monday.
Moving a few hours ahead of Mr Johnson, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon imposed the most stringent lockdown for Scotland since last spring.
UK scientists have expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in the country may not be able to protect against a new variant that emerged in South Africa and has spread internationally.
The following countries are among those that have reported variants of the novel coronavirus, first detected in China a year ago, among their populations.