EDINBURGH, Scotland – It’s only been a few weeks since people in Britain planned a relatively normal Christmas season with their families, thanks to relaxed pandemic rules. Now, with the mutant coronavirus variant fueling an almost vertical increase in new daily cases, large parts of the country are starting the new year by being hit back in the hardest closure.
The speed of the turnaround was astounding and frightening. At the end of November, following a nationwide exclusion in England, Britain’s case numbers dropped to around 13,000 a day. Now, six days in a row, the country has recorded more than 50,000 cases.
In comparison, England recorded 476.9 cases per 100,000 people in the past week – a rate that is almost five times worse than California, the worst-hit U.S. state, which, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 98, 8 record. cases per 100 000. The message to the world seems to be clear – the new variant spreads faster, and without strict preventive measures it will also happen to you.
Britain’s boom comes despite the planned Christmas relaxation, schools closing for Christmas, and the largest city, London, being in the highest level of closure for two weeks. Experts have been warning for weeks that the new variant is spreading so fast that rules that may have been worked out last year are no longer enough. Political leaders are now scrambling to figure out how to strike it back, or face disasters.
Scotland is first. His devolved nationalist government has already closed the border with England after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the new variant was heading south. On Monday, the Prime Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, announced just as strictly as the one in the spring. Her message – stay home and keep your children out of school, otherwise we end up just as bad as England.
Sturgeon has estimated that Scotland is now about four weeks behind England’s rise, but the new rules – which force Scots by law not to leave their homes but for some essential purposes – are intended to prevent the country from getting their neighbors out of control. . Scotland, according to government figures, accounts for 188.3 cases per 100,000, less than half the rate of England over the past seven days.
Meanwhile, Johnson was under tremendous pressure to preach, while cases in England saw an increase at a peak at a peak. It could come to an end on Monday as the prime minister has to address the country and has warned that the measures need to be tightened. However, it is not clear what the new action will be.
Asked how long it would take him to do something, Johnson said: ‘What we have been waiting for is to see the impact of the four-step measure on the virus, and it is still a bit unclear at present. But if you look at the numbers, there is no doubt that we will have to take stricter measures, and we will announce it in due course. ‘
Health Secretary Matt Hancock conceded that the rules that have worked since the close of spring are “no longer strong enough.”
Even more worrying, however, is Hancock’s conviction that the new British variant may not even be the greatest threat to an already engulfed nation. He said on Monday that he was “incredibly concerned” about a South African variant that is even more transmissible than the British one – and two cases have been confirmed in Britain.
Hancock told the BBC on Monday: “This is a very, very significant problem … even a bigger problem than the British new variant.”
One reason for concern may be that British experts have openly inquired whether the current vaccines will work on the South African mutant. John Bell, a professor at Oxford University and vaccine adviser to the government, said there was a ‘big question mark’ as to whether the existing vaccines would work on the South African variant.
It is clear that Britain is in a bad situation. What’s less clear is if it’s as bad as it will get, if new measures will be enough to control the virus mutant, and what happens if a worse one takes hold.