COVID-19: London and most of South East enter lockdown - with Christmas cancelled

[uk666]

COVID-19: London and most of South East enter lockdown - with Christmas cancelled

"I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned," Boris Johnson said, as he set out fears over a new COVID strain.

Millions of people will no longer be allowed mix with other households at Christmas, with a new Tier 4 level of COVID restrictions now in force.

In a dramatic move, prompted by fears over a new strain of coronavirus, all of those areas previously in Tier 3 in the South East - including London - moved to the new Tier 4 on Sunday.

And, in further stark action across the rest of England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday that the planned five-day easing of restrictions over the festive period will be limited to a single day.

"Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, and the potential risk it poses, I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned," he said at a Downing Street news conference.

Under the new Tier 4 measures in southeast England:

• all non-essential shops, gyms, and hairdressers are closed.
• People ordered to stay home apart from limited exceptions such as work (if people cannot work from home), education, childcare and exercise.

However, communal worship is allowed to continue under the toughened restrictions.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he supported the fresh government action in the face of rising infection rates, but added: "Millions of families across the country are going to be heartbroken by this news - having their Christmas plans ripped up.

"And I'm really frustrated because I raised this with the prime minister on Wednesday and he dismissed that and went on to tell people to have a merry little Christmas - only three days later to rip up their plans.

"I think the British public is entitled to more decisive leadership than that. They're getting confusion where they need certainty."

London mayor Sadiq Khan described the announcement of a strict new lockdown for the capital as a "bitter blow".

"Our city faces its toughest Christmas since the war - and we will all need to pull together to see us through this terrible period," he said.

Please follow the new rules - lives depend on it.