Boris’s Christmas warning over Covid
BRITAIN will face months more of coronavirus restrictions despite promising steps towards a vaccine, Boris Johnson has warned, as he told people that Christmas will be the season to be “jolly careful”.
The Prime Minister said the country was “not out of the woods yet” and stressed that it would take a while before people can be inoculated, as the Oxford-AstraZeneca team said its jab had proved 70% effective.
It follows positive results from Pfizer and Moderna but none of the jabs have yet been approved for use and getting people vaccinated will be a major undertaking.
Mr Johnson, who is self-isolating, made the video-link comments at a Downing Street press conference. The Prime Minister warned: “Even if all three vaccines are approved, even if the production timetables are met – and vaccines notoriously fall behind in their production timetables – it will be months before we can be sure we have inoculated everyone that needs a vaccine.” Mr Johnson added that “this is not the moment to let the virus rip for the sake of Christmas parties”. “Tis the season to be jolly, but it is also the season to be jolly careful, especially with elderly relatives,” he said.
He added that “things will look and feel very different” after Easter with a vaccine and mass testing. But he stressed the months ahead “will be hard”, which meant the need for new tiers from December 2, replacing England’s lockdown, with more areas facing tougher restrictions. Details of which areas will be in which tiers will be set out on Thursday.
Meanwhile, relatives of care home residents in England will be able to hug their loved ones before Christmas if they test negative for coronavirus and wear protective equipment, the Government has pledged.
PEOPLE in their 20s are no longer the age group with the highest proportion of Covid-19 positive tests across Devon and Cornwall.
The latest figures, based on tests reported between November 17 and November 22, show that across Plymouth and the Devon County Council area, the 50-59 age group have the highest proportion of cases, with the 40-49 age group having the most in Cornwall.
But in Torbay, the 10-19 age group is seeing the highest proportion of cases, although the total number of cases in the Bay is much lower than other areas and actual numbers have only slightly risen.
The proportion of positive cases in Torbay in the 10-19 age range has tripled in recent weeks and has also risen in Plymouth, but in Devon it is flat and has fallen in Cornwall.
The numbers of over 60s testing positive has increased in Devon and Plymouth, but fallen in Torbay and Cornwall.
The figures relate to positive cases reported during the week between November 17 and November 22, although do not necessarily relate to specimens from that time period.
Cornwall has the lowest proportion of those in the 60+ age range, just 10.8 per cent, and only one per cent (4 out of 313 cases) were in those aged 80+. Less than 10 per cent (9.9 per cent) of its cases were in the 10-19 age range, while the 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 each saw between 17 and 18 per cent of the total cases.
Plymouth is seeing 19 per cent of its cases in the 60+ age range, a slight increase, while 13.8 per cent are in the 10-19 age range, double the percentage from previous analysis. But the number of people in their 20s testing positive has fallen from 25 per cent to 17.2 per cent, with the actual number halving as well.
Torbay has seen the proportion of the numbers in the 10-19 age range triple to 21.5 per cent, although the actual number of positive cases is only slightly up, with the proportion rising due to falls in other age ranges. The number of 60+ positive cases is down to 19 per cent from 25 per cent, while just 6.9 per cent of the positive cases are of people in their 20s.
In the Devon County Council area, there has been a rise of people 60+ testing positive, now comprising 24 per cent of infections (up from 21 per cent), and 9 per cent being aged 80+, the highest of any of the areas. The 50-59 age range reported the highest percentage of any 10-year band at 17.6 per cent. But cases in 10-19s only comprise 10.6 per cent of the total, and those in their 20s have fallen from 21 per cent to 15.7 per cent.