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LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2020
UK PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has announced tighter restrictions for London, the South East and East of England while cutting back on planned relaxation of the rules over Christmas.
Under the new level of restriction, Tier 4, all non-essential shops, gyms and hairdressers will close, with people advised to stay at home apart from limited exceptions. He said the advice is to “stay local”. People are asked not to enter or leave Tier 4 areas.
The restrictions come into to effect from Sunday until 30 December.
The new measures could affect the Christmas plans of thousands of Irish people resident in London and the wider area.
“We must look again at Christmas,” Johnson said, adding that “with a very heavy heart” the easing of rules as planned will not go ahead.
People in Tier 4 areas are asked not to mix with other households over Christmas.
In other parts of England people will only be allowed to meet up with two other households on Christmas Day, rather than the original five days.
“Yes, Christmas this year will be different, very different but we must be realistic. We’re sacrificing the chance to see our loved ones. This Christmas. So we have a better chance of protecting their lives, so that we can see them in future Christmases. And as sure as night follows day. We’ll beat back this virus, we’ll defeat it and reclaim our lives.”
Johnson said that Christmas this year would be a chance to “lift a glass to those that aren’t there” in the hope that increased restrictions would allow families to meet again in the new year.
He said that bubbles for elderly and lonely people would provide “consolation” for cancelled festive plans.
The announcement follows emergency talks between Johnson and cabinet ministers this afternoon as scientists confirmed that the new variant coronavirus was spreading more rapidly.
“This is early data and it’s subject to review. But it’s the best that we have at the moment, and we have to act on information as we have it, because this is spreading very fast,” Johnson said.
“While we’re fairly certain, the variant is transmitted more quickly. There’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness equally.”
New variant
England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said the UK had informed the World Health Organisation that it had concluded the mutant strain could spread more quickly.
“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” he said in a statement.
“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.
“We have alerted the World Health Organisation and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding.
“There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this.
“Given this latest development, it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission.”
The latest development comes after Johnson refused to rule out a third national lockdown for England – a move he has previously been deeply reluctant to contemplate.
Wales and Northern Ireland have already announced fresh lockdowns once Christmas is over while the Scottish Government has said the option “remains on the table”.
Much of the latest focus is on the south and east of England where the new variant is thought to be most prevalent.
Latest figures from the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) showed the R number for the UK was estimated to have risen to between 1.1 and 1.2 – which means the disease is growing again.
A further 339 people who tested positive for coronavirus died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 46,122, NHS England said today.
- With reporting from PA
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The analysis brings out several more questions;
Is there an explanation from NPHET why the county with the current highest incidence, Donegal, borders with the county with the lowest, Leitrim.
Science says that the virus does not discriminate, we are told, so why is it so preferable to Leitrim people?
How many people are there in the country now with Covid, the last official number released was in June. Did NPHET stop counting that figure back then?
How many cases have been identified from 1st August onwards that were infected in a hospital or care home setting, whether as a patient, employee or visitor?
What changes has NPHET made to it’s modelling process to increase it’s accuracy since March?
These may not have dawned on the Journal journalists, but the answers would still be helpful.
@Garry Coll: It’s because North Donegal borders with Derry/Tyrone. Southern Donegal doesn’t have high rates which is the part close to Leitrim
@Spring2020:
South Donegal is about 90, Leitrim is around 15. Try again.
@Garry Coll: Not sure what is taken as south Donegal in the figures Gary. It could be cut off at Donegal town or a line from south-west to north-east as I think some of the sports organisations do. Anyway there is very little connection with Donegal and North Leitrim. About 15 miles of border with them and the way it forms geographically means there is more interaction with Fermanagh and just pass through traffic of about 2 miles with Leitrim heading south. Although the automatic assumption is the interaction in North Donegal with Strabane/ Derry is giving rise to the large amount of cases what is not being reported is the large number of cases assoiated with Letterkenny Hospital. Although I have no insight I am led to believe upwards of 250 cases directly to there. You could have greater interaction with people from South of the County and Letterkenny than Leitrim.
@Gavin Linden: Correct. I’m from there. The way the counties meet, Donegal may as well be Cork, there’s very little interaction between the 2.
@Garry Coll: top of inishowen is at 522 per 100000 sw donegal at 67.2 according latest gov map
@Gavin Linden: it the do legal south electoral are map is here https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/
@Garry Coll: no one is listening & that’s the reason why …
I had to collect something from town last night around 7pm and based on how people were behaving both in and outside bars and restaurants we’re headed straight for a massive spike in cases. I’m right there with everyone who wants to be able to go out and get a bit of normality, but we know that cases in the thousands just gets us more lockdown and forces all the businesses we want to support to close again. Don’t be selfish, do the bare minimum to keep levels low so we can keep things open this time.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: How did you see inside the bars and restaurants? Did you actually go and look in through the windows?
It’ll take the country a long time to recover from this and I don’t mean the virus.
I mean the way we have turned into a curtain twitching, ‘look what they’re doing over there’ society. The East Germans from the 70’s would have loved a population like ours. Quick to turn on each other, quick to report.
@JedBartlett: Because I was walking by, stepping onto the road to avoid big groups congregating outside pubs, hugging, all the things we’re not supposed to do?
I need to be very clear here, I’m not blaming pubs and restaurants at all, I’ve heard of a few that aren’t doing the right things but all of them I’ve seen or been in have been brilliant. If you read my post again you’ll see that I’m specifically calling out the people who are meeting as many people as they want. You can call it curtain twitching but so many of us have lost people this year, missed out on important events and had livelihoods affected, I’m simply appealing to people to try and behave themselves so we don’t get knocked back again.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: They should just schedule a final lockdown for the month of February now. It’s clear that opening up over Christmas is going to cause a case spike, regardless of patron behavior. At least if we know in advance, people and businesses can plan in advance of it.
@JedBartlett: If people would actually follow guidelines and not be completely selfish tools, then there would be no need for “curtain-twichers”, just follow the guidelines, its not difficult
@Adam J: Nobody is immune to catching this, both rule followers and rule floaters are both at risk, rule followers have a reduced risk obviously but they’re not risk free unless you hide in a wardrobe until it’s completely eradicated.
The smugness towards people who don’t follow the guidelines really says a lot about people. I doubt very much there are many in this country who haven’t stepped within 2 metres if somebody else since this started or who have flouted some other guideline at some point.
@JedBartlett: Theres no smugness, its simple common sense, no doubt i’ve passed by people closer than 2m when there is no space to distance, but in those instances I am wearing a mask, to minimise the risk (Not eliminate….minimise)
There are others out there that lack the simple common sense to distance or wear masks, we are approaching a year of Covid 19 and they still dont get it, thats the hilarious part. Its the ignorance of those people that are worsening the outbreaks
@JedBartlett: You’re moving the goalposts now.
@Adam J: And there’s no smugness? Read your last sentence again.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: well said! It’s pure selfish behaviour from this lot who will have us back in lockdown in no time. Furthermore they might contract and recover but those they pass onto might not
@JedBartlett: Nazi “germany”, dearie. Did you “miss” that part of history” ?
@Iris Weber: Good man, Iris
@JedBartlett: I think you are a little paranoid, there is no smugness, just disappointment at tools who don’t get understand the damage they are doing
@Adam J: And I think there’s a bang of smugness here too. I hope you at no point catch this virus for that would make you one of the tools surely?
Softening everyone up for the next lockdown – we all know already – get on with it !
@Kevin Davy: lockdown 3 mid January.
@Kevin Davy: Stockholm’s ICU’s have reached 99% capacity due to worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Interview with doctors, Radio Sweden:
https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/7430274
The second part of the report talks about the economic damage due to the pandemic.
There are too many who still think we should have followed Sweden’s soft approach. However, Sweden has had a worse outbreak than us and is now toughening up its measures. They earlier limited gatherings to no more than 8 people and they want to enact laws that can force businesses (shops and gyms) to close (see: “Swedish government to ask parliament for tougher powers to fight pandemic” ).
Translation:
Intensive care in the Stockholm Region is under severe pressure. On Tuesday, the intensive care units were 99 percent full. This is the first time this has happened during the pandemic.
These are activities that are about life and death, so the situation is very serious, says Björn Persson, operations manager for perioperative medicine and intensive care at Karolinska.
The director of health and medical care, Björn Eriksson, says that he turned to the National Board of Health and Welfare for staff reinforcement.
A bit of fibbing going on with regard to schools
I know of 4 people who have been confirmed to have Corona, all four tested positive on their 2nd test and negative on their first. All carried on with life with their normal lives until a week later, something is wrong with the timings of the tests
Anyone know what the vaccine related death count is?
That’d be more interesting than the PCR False Positive count…
@Eddie: Yes Eddie, it’s 0. Hope you found that helpful.
@Eddie: GO away to russia.
Let’s change the Antigen test to the gold standard and stop doing a hearing test to indicate the performance of someone’s vision.
@O’Brien: Antigen tests have been reported as being as high as 50% for false positives, the cost is a factor too, Boots UK offering Lumiradx antigen test, is £120
No doubt Boots are profiteering here, but cost is a massive factor in testing unfortunately
Dublin is on level 1 because no wet pubs….rest of the country maybe level 3 can’t say because last 8 months I did not left dublin…..
@Anamaria Strango: dublin is on level 1 because no wet pubs…huh?
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