UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has announced a new national lockdown until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus.
According to Johnson the move was necessary to aid the containing of the disease variant, even as Britain ramped up its vaccination program by becoming the first nation to start using the vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca.
Johnson on Monday, January 4, said people must stay at home again, as they were ordered to do so in the first wave of the pandemic in March.
“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” he said.