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LONDON – Alarmed by what he called a faster-spreading variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly reversed course on Saturday and imposed a comprehensive lockdown on London and most of south-east England .
The move, which Mr Johnson announced after an emergency cabinet meeting, came after the government obtained new evidence of a variant first detected several weeks ago in Kent, to the south -est of London, which the Prime Minister said was 70% more transmissible than the previous one. versions.
The new measures, which take effect at the end of Saturday evening, aim, in effect, to cut off the capital and its surrounding counties from the rest of England. These are the toughest measures the government has taken since it imposed a lockdown on the country in March, and they reflect fears the new variant could overload transmission of the virus as winter sets in.
“When the virus changes its method of attack, we have to change our method of defense,” grim Mr Johnson said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon. “We have to act on the information as we have it because it now spreads very quickly.”
Viral mutations are not unusual and this variant – known as VUI 202012/01 – has been detected in a handful of other countries, but some medical experts have expressed concern about its apparent infectivity. Some have argued that this heightens the urgency for the government to tighten social restrictions to try to eradicate the virus completely.
“The elimination is increasingly optimal,” said Devi Sridhar, head of the global public health program at the University of Edinburgh. “More virus circulating means more variants and mutations.”
Other scientists have warned that the rapid spread of the variant does not necessarily mean it is more transmissible.
The drastic new measures were taken after ministers learned that cases nearly doubled last week in London, with the new variant accounting for 60% of them.
UK ministers were told there is no evidence that the new variant is inherently more deadly, or that it is more resistant to vaccines than others, but that it is significantly easier to transmit.
However, this raises the prospect of a faster growth in the number of cases, leading to more hospitalizations and deaths, and the UK government has said it has informed the World Health Organization of the prevalence of the new variant.
The new lockdown area includes all of Greater London and much of the south-east of the country, a densely populated area encompassing nearly 20 million people, or one-third of the English population. The restrictions will remain in place for at least two weeks and will be reviewed on December 30.
The government has told residents of that region to stay home except for a few reasons, including urgent travel, medical appointments and outdoor exercises. People outside of this area have been advised not to enter it, and those who live there will not be allowed to travel outside at night. Non-essential stores will close, as will gyms, cinemas, hairdressers and nail salons.
And, although Mr Johnson said just days ago that it would be “inhumane” to cancel Christmas, that will be the practical effect on a large part of the population with further restrictions on social mixing. A plan to allow three households to reunite over the holidays will be scrapped in London and the south-east, with no mixing of households allowed.
In other parts of the country, three households will be allowed to assemble, but only on Christmas Day, and not for the extended five-day period envisaged.
Saturday’s announcement is an admission that England’s existing system of restrictions, under which the country was divided into three “tiers” with different rules, has not been sufficient to control the spread of the virus. The new lock zone will be a new and harder fourth level.
Mr Johnson already has the legal power to tighten the rules and there is currently no plan to recall Parliament.
The coronavirus has mutated several times since its appearance in China in 2019, according to epidemiologists. South Africa reported on Friday that it had identified a new variant, which it said was leading to a new wave of infections there. It is not clear whether this is the same variant as identified in Britain.
Most of these variations are neither significant nor widespread. But as the number of people who have been infected – and, presumably, have developed immunity – increases, so does the pressure on the pathogen to mutate. Some of the newer variants may be more transmissible or lead to more serious illness than earlier versions of the virus.
“This is potentially serious,” Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease expert who is director of the Wellcome Trust, said in a statement last week. “Surveillance and research must continue and we must take the necessary steps to stay ahead of the virus.”
For weeks Mr Johnson has struggled to balance his response to the virus with pressure not to do more damage to the economy. The government instituted a graduated scale of levels, placing Manchester, Liverpool and other cities in the north, where infection rates were highest, in the most restrictive level. Life in London has remained largely unchanged.
In November, as infection rates began to rise across the country, Mr Johnson imposed a new nationwide lockdown. This sparked speculation in the British tabloids that he would be forced to “cancel Christmas”. Instead, he promised to ease restrictions on social mixing for a five-day period around Christmas to allow families to reunite.
But last week, as London emerged as a new hot spot, Mr Johnson placed the capital and most of the south-east at Level 3, the highest level of restrictions. He stuck to his promise of a Christmas reprieve from Dec. 23-27, even as he pleaded with people to keep family reunions short and short.
“Have a merry little Christmas,” Mr Johnson said last week, announcing the half measures, “but alas this year preferably a very little Christmas.”
With the tightened restrictions announced on Saturday, the desirable Christmas has become even smaller.
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