■ The British prime minister implemented another national lockdown.
Measures apply until at least mid-february
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a new national lockdown for England until at least mid-february to combat a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus.
The decision came even as Britain ramped up its vaccination program by becoming the first nation to start using the shot from Oxford University and drugmaker Astrazeneca.
Johnson said people must stay at home again, as they were ordered to do during the first wave of the pandemic in March, this time because the new virus variant is spreading in a “frustrating and alarming” way.
Starting Tuesday, primary and secondary schools and colleges will be closed for face-to-face learning except for the children of key workers and vulnerable pupils. University students will not return until at least mid-february. People were told to work from home unless it’s impossible to do so and to leave home only for essential trips.
All nonessential shops and personal care services, like hairdressers, will be closed, and restaurants can only operate takeout services.
As of Monday, there were 26,626 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in England, an increase of more than 30 percent from a week ago. That is 40 percent above the highest level of the first wave in the spring.
Large areas of England were already under tight restrictions as officials try to control an alarming surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, blamed on a new variant of COVID-19 that is more contagious than existing variants. Authorities have recorded more than 50,000 new infections daily since passing that milestone for the first time on Dec. 29. On Monday, they reported 407 virus-related deaths to push the confirmed death toll total to 75,431, one of the worst in Europe.
Scotland’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, also imposed a lockdown there with broadly similar restrictions running from Tuesday until the end of January.
The announcements came on the day U.K. health authorities began putting the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine into arms around the country, fueling hopes that life may begin returning to normal by the spring.
Britain has secured the rights to
100 million doses of the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to use than some of its rivals. In particular, it doesn’t require the super-cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine.
A “massive ramp-up operation” is now underway, Johnson said.
The goal was that by mid-february, some 13 million people in the top priority groups — care home residents, all those over age 70, front-line health and social workers, and those deemed extremely clinically vulnerable — will be vaccinated, he said.