LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Tuesday launched its third COVID-19 exclusion with the government calling for one last major national effort to defeat the spread of a virus estimated to infect one in 50 citizens before mass vaccinations make the tide turn.
Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a new £ 4.6bn ($ 6.2bn) package of business grants to help people keep jobs until the measures are gradually eased, at the earliest from mid-February , but probably later.
Britain was one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19, with the second highest death toll in Europe and an economy that suffered the sharpest contraction of any in the Group of Seven during the first wave of infections last spring.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the latest data showed that 2% of the population is currently infected – more than a million people in England.
“When everyone looks at the position, people overwhelmingly understand that we have no choice,” he told a news conference.
More than 1.3 million people in Britain have already received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination, but it is not yet enough to have an impact on transmission.
Johnson announced the new closure late Monday, saying the highly contagious new coronavirus variant first identified in Britain is spreading so fast that the national health service sees a chance of being overwhelmed within 21 days.
In England alone, about 27,000 people are hospitalized with COVID, 40% more than during the first peak in April, and the number of infections is expected to rise further after greater socialization during the Christmas season.
Since the onset of the pandemic, more than 75,000 people in the UK have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, according to official figures. The number of daily new infections passed 60,000 for the first time on Tuesday.
A Savanta-ComRes poll conducted just after Johnson’s speech suggested that four out of five adults in England support the exclusion.
“I definitely think it was the right decision to make,” said London’s Kaitlin Colucci, 28. “I just hope not everyone struggles too much to be indoors again.”
Downing Street said Johnson canceled a visit to India later this month to focus on the response to the virus, and Buckingham Palace has suspended its traditional summer garden parties this year.
VACCINATIONS ARE KEY
Under the new rules in England, schools were closed to most pupils, people had to work from home as much as possible and all hospitality shops and non-essential shops were closed. Semi-autonomous drivers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have introduced similar measures.
As infection rates rise across Europe, other countries also emphasize public life. Germany will extend its strict exclusion until the end of the month, and Italy will keep countrywide restrictions in place this past weekend while its curbs relax on weekdays.
Sunak’s latest package of grants contributes to the striking 280 billion pounds of support in British government that has already been announced for this financial year to stave off the total economic collapse.
The new exclusion is likely to shrink the economy again, though not as much as during the first exclusion last spring. JP Morgan economist Allan Monks said he expected the economy to shrink by 2.5% in the first quarter of 2021 – compared to almost 20% in the second quarter of 2020.
To end the cycle of locks, the government is pinning its hopes on vaccines. It aims to vaccinate all residents of parental homes and their carers, all over the age of 70, all health and social care workers and all those who are clinically extremely vulnerable by mid-February.
Senior Minister Michael Gove, however, pointed out that the caution of restrictions must be exercised.
“We will be able to review the progress we made on February 15 … and we hope to be able to take up restrictions thereafter, but what I can not do is predict, no one can predict with accuracy what we will be able to do. relax and when, ”he told Sky News.
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Additional reporting by Sarah Young, Michael Holden, Andy Bruce, William Schomberg, Ben Makori and William James; written by Estelle Shirbon; edited by Guy Faulconbridge, Raissa Kasolowsky and Jonathan Oatis