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The Right Coast
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U.K. imposes new lockdown on London over new COVID-19 strain – Axios

By Thomas A. Smith

About 21 million people entered full lockdown restrictions in London, southeast and eastern England and Wales Sunday to curb the spread of a highly infectious new strain of COVID-19.

For the record: The World Health Organization tweeted that it’s in “close contact” with British officials on the variant, as the Dutch government introduced a ban on passenger flights from the United Kingdom, effective Sunday morning through Jan. 1, after finding a case with the same strain in the Netherlands.

Driving the news: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday although there’s “considerable uncertainty,” the new strain “may be up to 70% more transmissible” than the original version of the disease. England s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said the strain accounted for over 60% of new cases in London over the past week.

  • Johnson said during the news conference that an expected Christmas Day reprieve a planned postponement of restrictions that would permit up to three households to convene in “Christmas bubbles”  would be canceled for Tier 4 zones.
  • The move means London, southeast and eastern England moved from Tier 3 restrictions to Tier 4 restrictions from Sunday. Non-essential retailers must temporarily shutter to help combat the rapidly rising coronavirus infection rate.
  • Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford said the country would also lock down from Sunday as “hundreds of people” had caught this new “more aggressive” strain, the BBC reports.

via www.axios.com