Christmas is cancelled
UK, Oz introduce new restrictions ... but not in NZ
Millions of people must cancel their Christmas get-togethers after stricter coronavirus restrictions were put in place in parts of Britain, Australia and Europe to halt spreading infections.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday that London and large areas in southern England already placed under the highest level of the UK government’s three-tiered coronavirus alert system will move into a new Tier 4 that requires all non-essential shops, hairdressers and indoor leisure venues to close from yesterday.
With just days to go until Christmas, Johnson also announced that a planned easing of socialising rules that would have allowed up to three households to meet in “Christmas bubbles” from December 23 to December 27 will be cancelled for Tier 4 areas and sharply curtailed in the rest of England.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.
In Australia other states moved to shut their borders as cases in NSW continued to rise.
Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced he was closing the border to NSW from midnight last night.
“I must announce on the best public health advice that from 11:59pm we will declare all of greater Sydney and the Central Coast a red zone,” Andrews said.
“Beyond that the Northern Beaches will become a hot zone and what that means is that nobody who is from those parts of Sydney, greater Sydney or has visited that part of greater Sydney will be allowed to travel back to Melbourne or any part of Victoria,” Andrews said.
“If you do arrive back or travel here you will face 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine.”
It comes as Western Australia also announced it was reinstating its hard border with NSW from midnight Saturday and South Australia closed its border to Greater Sydney.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a 10-person limit on gatherings in people’s homes.
A 300-person cap has also been introduced for all venues to assist contact tracers in case of a superspreader event.
In Europe, Italy and Germany have tightened restrictions.
Italy ordered a nationwide lockdown over much of th Christmas and New Year.
The country will be under “redzone” restrictions over the public holidays, with non-essential shops, restaurants and bars closed, and Italians only allowed to travel for work, health and emergency reasons. Italy has recorded the highest Covid death toll in Europe, with close to 68,000 fatalities.
For a time, Germany seemed to have solved the puzzle of how to quell Covid-19.
Germans enjoyed a largely relaxed summer with many restrictions lifted, the dividend of a rapid response to the initial outbreak and a reliance on early and aggressive testing that won wide praise.
But cases began to rise exponentially as the weather cooled and now Germany has entered a hard lockdown, closing schools and nonessential businesses in an attempt to stop a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections.
The measures will be in place until January 10. Christmas will see a slight easing, with one household allowed to host up to four family members.
In Britain, Johnson said a fastmoving new variant of the coronavirus that is more than 70 per cent more transmissible than existing strains appears to be driving the rapid spread in London and southern England.
Although London fared relatively well in controlling the virus throughout the autumn, the city now has the highest infection rates in England. Officials said the new mutation accounted for about 60 per cent of the capital’s cases.
“There’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” the prime minister stressed, or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said the UK has alerted the World Health Organisation that the new variant identified this week appears to be accelerating the spread of Covid-19. The government’s scientific advisers came to that conclusion based on preliminary modelling figures, and they are continuing to analyse the available data, he said.
In Wales, authorities said they decided to move up a lockdown planned for after Christmas and people must stay at home from today. The move will largely scrap Christmas gatherings in line with the rules for southern England.
The Scottish government said residents would be subject to Tier 4 restrictions starting on December 26, and a travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK will be in force throughout the holiday period. Northern Ireland already said a fresh lockdown would start once Christmas is over.
It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson