By Elishya Perera
LONDON (CU)_As England continues to battle the deadly surge in COVID-19 infections, pandemic related restrictions are expected to get tougher, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The Prime Minister made these comments during an interview on Sunday (Jan 3) when he was inquired if current restrictions implemented in the worst-hit areas of England were sufficient to contain the spread of the virus.
“It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country, I’m fully reconciled with that,” Johnson said. “I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that,” he added.
Although he noted that he does not want to speculate what these tougher measures would be, however, the Prime Minister warned: “It is bumpy, and it’s going to be bumpy.”
Under the current system, most of England, including London, falls under the toughest Tier 3 and Tier 4 restrictions, with a strict stay-at-home message. Accordingly, both primary and secondary schools across London and some other parts of southeast England will remain closed for in-person learning for at least the next two weeks, with students to be taught remotely rather than in classrooms.
However, some scientists say that stricter measures are needed in order to bring the new and more infectious variant of the virus which has spread across London, southeast England and parts of Wales in recent weeks, under control.
On Saturday, UK recorded its highest daily rise in COVID-19 infections, reporting 57,725 new cases. The country has registered more than 2.6 million Coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, and has reported more than 50,000 new cases for six days in a row, with nearly 55,000 new confirmed cases registered on Sunday.
Leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, claimed that the virus is clearly out of control, and called for a nationwide lockdown to be imposed within the next 24 hours on Sunday.
“The virus is clearly out of control and there’s no good the Prime Minister hinting that further restrictions are coming into place in a week or two or three. That delay has been the source of so many problems,” he said. “So, I say, bring in those restrictions now, national restrictions within the next 24 hours — that has to be the first step to controlling the virus.”
Nevertheless, PM Johnson insisted that his government had taken every possible step to prepare for the challenges of winter.
“What we could not have foreseen, I think, reasonably, was the arrival of a new variant of the virus, which was spreading between 50 and 70% faster. Once we did understand that on, I think, December 18… we took decisive action,” he added.
This new variant of the Coronavirus was first detected in the UK, and as of January 1, at least 30 countries, including the United States, had reported cases of this variant. However, health officials say that there is not evidence that the variant is any more deadly or causes more severe disease.
