Coronavirus: Tighter restrictions in Britain amid alarm about variant
Struggling to curb the spread of a potentially more infectious variant of the coronavirus, the British government on Wednesday ordered more sections of England to be placed under restrictive lockdown.
Health officials said severely limiting human contact was the only way to protect people. “The new variant makes everything so much harder because it spreads so much faster,” the British health secretary said.
Areas around England will be placed under the highest level of restrictions starting the day after Christmas. All nonessential businesses must close and people cannot meet with those outside their households.
The numbers: Britain reported 39,237 cases on Wednesday, up 56 percent from a week ago, according to a Times database. The number of people hospitalized with the virus is about the same as it was at the peak of the outbreak in the spring.
Context: More than 50 countries have banned travelers from the U.K. since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first raised the alarm over the variant on Sunday. A logjam of thousands of trucks headed to France may take days to clear as each driver is tested while in line. Airports in India are also struggling to implement new measures.
The New York Times