‘Stay home’: England in national Covid lockdown from tonight
People living England have tonight been told to stay home for at least seven weeks, after Boris Johnson plunged the country into a national lockdown similar to the one from March.
The Prime Minister said everyone in England must stay home unless they are shopping for essential items, exercising, providing care for a vulnerable person or attending medical appointments.
People who cannot work from home, such as builders and frontline health workers, will also be allowed to leave the house for work.
The England lockdown will not end before mid-February.
The decision was made, after new data showed Covid-19 hospitalisations were now 40 per cent higher than during the first peak last April due to the new more virulent strain of the virus.
“It’s clear we need to do more together to get this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out,” Johnson said.
“If action is not taken NHS capacity may be overwhelmed within 21 days.”
All schools, colleges and universities will switch to remote learning, except for children of frontline workers and those who are considered to be vulnerable.
Exercise will be allowed just once a day and people will be able to do this with one other person they don’t live with or with people in their household and bubble.
Restaurants and pubs can stay open for takeaways and deliveries, however takeaway alcohol can no longer be served from venues.
Garden centres, pharmacies, builders merchants, supermarkets and places of worship can remain open and elite sport will continue.
Johnson said the new curbs were in response to cases surging in every part of the country.
There are currently 26,626 Covid patients in English hospitals – up by 30 per cent from one week ago and up 40 per cent from last year’s peak.
Deaths from Covid also rose by 20 per cent in the past week alone and have now surpassed 75,000 in total.
The Prime Minister said those at the highest risk of dying from Covid should all be vaccinated by mid-February, meaning restrictions could then start to be lifted.
“I really do believe we’re entering the last phase of the struggle – with every jab that goes into our arms we are tilting the odds against Covid,” he said.
“If our understanding of the virus doesn’t change dramatically once again, if the rollout of the vaccine continues to be successful, if deaths start tot fall and if everyone plays their part by following the rules then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown…by the February half term and move the regions down the tiers.”
The official regulations will be drawn up and passed into law by tomorrow night, however the Prime Minister asked people to start following the new restrictions straight away.