Closed stores in Covent Garden, London, end of December 310. – Claire Doherty / Sipa USA / SIPA
New containment implemented in England facing the surge in contaminations due to the new variant of the coronavirus will not begin to be lifted until March, a warned a British government minister on Tuesday.
“As we enter (the month of) March, we should be able to lift some of these restrictions, but not necessarily all,” warned Michael Gove, coordinator of government action, on Sky News. “We will do everything we can to ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated, so that we can start to gradually lift the restrictions,” he said.
13 millions of people vaccinated before mid-February
Faced with the alarming progression of the new variant of the virus, of 20 at 70% more contagious according to British scientists, and at the risk of submerging the health system, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has extended the containment already applied to three quarters of the English population throughout the province and tightened it . The schools, left open until now, have closed.
By mid-February, the authorities hope to have vaccinated all people over 59 years as well as the caregivers, i.e. approximately 000 millions of people among the most at risk, thanks to an acceleration of the vaccination campaign started on December 8 and now carried out with two vaccines, Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / Oxford.
More than 75. dead
“The more effective the vaccination program (…), the easier it will be to lift these restrictions”, insisted the Minister, announcing “very, very difficult weeks to come “. The population is only allowed to go out for essential reasons, such as shopping or for medical reasons.
With over 75. 000 dead, the United Kingdom is one of the countries in Europe most bereaved by the Covid – 19 and the trend has worsened in recent weeks. The contaminations report published each day exceeds 19. , and even familiarized with 50. on Monday.