England announces new lockdown until at least mid February

[Slayer]

Boris Johnson has announced a new national lockdown for England - with people instructed to "stay at home" as they did during March's first lockdown.

The prime minister revealed the action in an eight-minute TV address on Monday night, after being told that COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly in every part of the country due to the new coronavirus variant.

The public are being asked to follow the new rules, which replace the tiers system, from this evening.

It is expected the new lockdown in England - the third time a national shutdown has been introduced - will last until the middle of February.

People across the whole country must now stay at home apart from five exceptions:

-for work, if people cannot work from home, such as those in the construction sector or key workers

-to shop for necessities such as food or medicines

-to exercise once per day at a local location. This can include with one other person from outside someone's household or support/childcare bubble

-to provide care or help to vulnerable people

-to attend medical appointments or medical care, or to flee the threat of harm or violence.

All primary schools, secondary schools and colleges will move to online learning from tomorrow.

However, nurseries can remain open while childcare and support bubbles will stay in place.

Those who are judged to be clinically vulnerable are being urged to stay at home as much as possible and not go to work even if they can't work from home.

They should only go outside for exercise or to attend health appointments.

Mr Johnson said the new coronavirus variant was spreading at a "frustrating and alarming" speed.

"As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic," he added.

The prime minister's announcement came after the UK's COVID alert level was raised from Level 4 to Level 5, the highest possible, for the first time.

In a stark warning, the UK's chief medical officers said there was a "material risk of the NHS in several areas being overwhelmed over the next 21 days" without further action.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had earlier announced a nationwide lockdown would be introduced in Scotland from midnight tonight.

And the Welsh government announced that all schools and colleges will move to online learning until 18 January.

The UK recorded 58,784 new coronavirus cases on Monday - the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.

It is the seventh day in a row that there have been more than 50,000 daily cases, while government figures also showed there have been 407 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

Source: Sky News

[Dexwhitespears]

Yikes. Remember when people here were talking smack about Tom Cruise screaming at careless folks on the set of his movie? How does it feel now, England was notoriously casual in its approach after a point and look where it got them. Pray to God these vaccines are available in good quantity asap! :(  

[DougFrmBrazil]

But celebrities will be partying and traveling anyway.

[blackguillemot]

Patience is what we need rn.

[SloppyToppyGoddess]

12 minutes ago, DougFrmBrazil said:

But celebrities will be partying and traveling anyway.

More like Tik Tok "celebrities". They're all trash.

[Stefani]

Damn even with the new vaccines coming out? We have a similar extended lockdown in some places here in Cali, and Japan's going on lockdown soon too. I'm having deja vu of early 2020.

[Jordan Miller]

Omg

[SkyNet]

Where I live, we are back to lockdown since Christmas until at least the end of January.  

[nwonder]

 

[Isla]

1 hour ago, DougFrmBrazil said:

But celebrities will be partying and traveling anyway.

So many British celebs are in Dubai right now, so many claiming it's for 'work purposes', bet they're lying. It makes me so angry. I rarely go abroad and I've always wanted to go to Dubai or even go somewhere else in the world but now is not the right time to be travelling!!

Personally I think Boris should have done a much stricter lockdown last March when all of this kicked off. The people breaking the rules didn't help but I think the first lockdown could have been better enforced so it wouldn't have been so easy for people to break the rules anyhow. We might have been in a slightly better position now. Hopefully this lockdown works... is that even the right word to use? I don't see how we can keep going in and out of lockdown whenever cases rise. Hopefully the vaccine programme works.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Isla

[Britney'sBish]

The US desperately needs a STRICT month lockdown, too many idiots over here making everything worse.

[OnlyBeyonce]

this situation is incredible scary, everyone MUST respect the rules or will faces this ******* virus forever 

[Isla]

Just saw on Twitter apparently BTEC students were meant to be doing exams this week. They better get cancelled. 

[Kiey]

35 deaths from my country, no lockdown since May.

everyone is partying and going to nightclubs

I guess communist regime kinda has its advantages

[Groundbreaking]

Stay sane and stay safe guys. 

[GMFlop]

Meanwhile my country doesn't give a crap about covid. Just this past weekend, one of my relatives held a wedding ceremony and reception and of course we didn't go there even though we were invited. But it just shows how people's beautiful mind works! 

[Alexanda]

18 hours ago, Dexwhitespears said:

Yikes. Remember when people here were talking smack about Tom Cruise screaming at careless folks on the set of his movie? How does it feel now, England was notoriously casual in its approach after a point and look where it got them. Pray to God these vaccines are available in good quantity asap! :(  

Not in my country sadly, because they simply failed us and haven't bought enough vaccines. 

They don't get anything right here, it's so frustrating. 

But lockdown til the end of january here, it's not funny anymore. 

 

[Michaelgiftos]

20 hours ago, Dexwhitespears said:

Yikes. Remember when people here were talking smack about Tom Cruise screaming at careless folks on the set of his movie? How does it feel now, England was notoriously casual in its approach after a point and look where it got them. Pray to God these vaccines are available in good quantity asap! :(  

The sad thing is Tom cruise will probably still film his movie while being deemed “essential” while so many others are going to be out of work

[Michaelgiftos]

I have such conflicted feelings about lockdowns. I work in the service industry and the shutdown literally made me the brokest I’ve been since I was 18. But I also want to remain safe and get this thing under control. It would help if our government in the US could give people affected by the pandemic economically more than 600 dollars. But if that’s the best they can do I want us to stay open and find other ways to tackle getting rid of this virus. 

[Isla]

15 hours ago, Isla said:

Just saw on Twitter apparently BTEC students were meant to be doing exams this week. They better get cancelled. 

Sorry to quote myself, but I just saw this. How the **** are they still doing exams this week??? What a ******* joke.