It has been reported that England could be set for a ‘New Year lockdown’ as warnings state that the new mutant strain of covid has spread across the country.
The next review of the restrictions across England will be on 30 December and it’s predicted that large areas of England could will join London and parts of southeast in tier four.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told Sky News: “It’s a stronger strain of the virus in the sense that it’s more transmittable, it’s a bouncy virus.”
She also said: “of course, if the virus continues to spread then we will take stronger measures”.
Under tier 4 restrictions, non-essential shops, hairdressers, and leisure and entertainment venues must close, with a strong “stay at home” message issued by authorities.
Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: “This new variant is very concerning, and is unlike anything we have seen so far in the pandemic,”.
It has also been reported that schools may be forced to close and offer home learning during January with some secondary schools already informing parents about plans.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Neil Ferguson, a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group said: “I think what we’ll see in the next two weeks, while schools are still closed, is probably all the variants of the virus in circulation declining, but we’ll be tracking very carefully whether we can see differences in that rate of decline.”
