UK COVID-19 restrictions: London, England issued 'stay-at-home' orders under tier-4 norms

Residents in UK’s East and South-East England woke up to tighter restrictions on non-essential movement due to stem spread related to 2 new variants of the coronavirus, one originally detected in the UK, another mutated and imported from South Africa. UK government upgraded restrictions to tier-4 across all 32 London boroughs plus the City of London and parts of England. Furthermore, the Boris Johnson administration issued the highest health emergency alert instructing nearly 6 million people to remain under ‘home confinement’ in a new stay-at-home advisory. 

The new sweeping measures were updated by 10 Downing Street on the official website ahead of Boxing Day. The ministry imposed tier-4 restrictions on Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, and a 3 week and 6-week lockdown on Scotland and Northern Ireland. All essential businesses were asked to remain close due to the rising caseload of the COVID-19 and surges in hospitalizations and deaths. Moreover, UK health officials have scrambled to detect if the caseload surge has a new variant of the coronavirus known to have over 17 mutations, and appears 70 percent more transmissible with the dangerous rate of spread, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. 

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UK’s epidemiologist  Nick Davies with project SPI-M that uses mathematical model led a study and reported that with all biological and epidemiological evidence, it is clear that the pandemic is getting more grip with ‘pretty serious’ situation. This comes as Japan's health ministry announced in a statement that the first cases of infection with the new variant were detected in the country in people that arrived from the UK between December 18 and December 21. Health Minister Norihisa Tamura told a press conference that 1 symptomatic and 4 other asymptomatic cases were put under quarantine with immediate effect and further research was being conducted by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

France detects first 'UK variant' case

Meanwhile, the French health ministry detected France’s first case of the UK’s new strain in a London returnee. France’s health ministry said in a statement that the patient was asymptomatic, and has been isolated. This comes days after France shut the Dover border prohibiting UK hauliers from entering the country, this stranded thousands of lorry drivers on the UK’s side of the English Channel in Kent on Christmas. 

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