Coronavirus live news: Boris Johnson announces new tier 4 and tightens Christmas rules; Scotland announces travel ban with rest of UK
Boris #Boris
2.39pm EST 14:39
Here’s more from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who said he was “really frustrated” following the announcement that Christmas would be cancelled for many families across the UK.
The infection rates are going up very, very fast and so something has to be done, and we support the steps the government has put in place but millions of families are going to be heartbroken by this news – having their Christmas plans ripped up.
I’m really frustrated because I raised this with the prime minister on Wednesday and he dismissed that and went on to tell people to have a merry little Christmas – only three days later to rip up their plans.
I think the British public is entitled to more decisive leadership than that.
Updated at 2.47pm EST
2.38pm EST 14:38
Good evening everyone.
This is Nicola Slawson and I’m taking over the liveblog from Lucy for the evening. Get in touch if you think I’m missing anything. My email is nicola.slawson@theguardian.com.
2.00pm EST 14:00
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has lambasted Boris Johnson’s government for making last-minute changes to coronavirus restrictions around Christmas, adding that stricter rules should have been in place earlier.
New tier 4 restrictions were announced across England, Wales and Scotland on Saturday amid a surge in coronavirus cases and concerns about a new strain of coronavirus.
Millions across Britain will be ‘heartbroken’: Keir Starmer reacts to coronavirus U-turn – video
1.51pm EST 13:51
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon told the briefing that the vast majority of identified cases of the new strain are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, adding:
In Scotland, but for this new strain I wouldn’t be standing here right now. This is about this new strain and the risk we know it poses if we don’t do something.
She underlined that the travel ban will be law: while enforcement decisions are for Police Scotland to make, she wants the public to think carefully about whether journeys are necessary.
Sturgeon said she recognises how difficult the phased return to school will be for working parents, and added that her government will be setting out further information on the impact on nurseries over the next few days.
Nicola Sturgeon imposes Scotland travel ban as new Covid strain leads to cases rising – video
Updated at 2.18pm EST
1.41pm EST 13:41
Benjamin Netanyahu has become the first person in Israel to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as the country begins it inoculation rollout on Saturday night.
The prime minister had previously said he wanted to set an example for other Israelis by taking the Pfizer vaccine first.
“What’s important to me is that the people of Israel get vaccinated. I believe in this vaccine. I want the people of Israel to get vaccinated and so I will be first,” he said earlier this month.
Israel, a country of 9 million people, has made deals with Pfizer to provide several million doses, as well as separate agreements with Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc.
Daily infection rates in Israel have risen close to 3,000 per day, and the government is considering renewed restrictions to avert a possible third national shutdown.
Authorities had previously debated imposing nighttime curfews, while schools and many shops could also be closed.
Benjamin Netanyahu and the health minister Yuli Edelstein were injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine live on TV at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital, in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 2.25pm EST
1.38pm EST 13:38
Summary
Here is a recap of the main developments from the last few hours from the UK:
Updated at 1.39pm EST
1.35pm EST 13:35
There is no immediate plan to change the Christmas Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland, despite rules being tightened in other parts of the UK, PA Media understands.
Sources said meetings between the executive and the UK government had been ongoing all day. The first minister Arlene Foster, the deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill, the health minister Robin Swann and the chief medical officer Michael McBride held discussions on the issue on Saturday.
1.03pm EST 13:03
The new strain of Covid-19 may leave the NHS struggling to provide its usual range of care, especially in the new tier 4 areas, hospital bosses said after Boris Johnson’s announcement.
In a gloomy assessment of the situation facing the health service Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
The NHS was already facing its most challenging winter on record before the discovery of a more virulent strain of Covid-19 and even with these latest measures, we are still likely to see increased transmission of the disease and a deteriorating situation facing other frontline NHS services, despite the best efforts of a stretched health and care workforce.
NHS leaders are worried that the tide is against them and the government will need to level with the public about the services the NHS will be able to provide in the areas moving into tier four and nationally should the situation deteriorate further.
The Confederation represents all sorts of care providers in England, such as hospitals, GP networks, ambulance service and mental health providers. Mortimer added:
New Christmas restrictions is the present no one wanted but the NHS needs.
He urged the public to do everything they can over the festive period to follow the rules to protect the NHS.
The government is right to level with the public about how challenging the situation in the coming days and weeks will be and it’s critical this chilling but clear message is maintained throughout the Christmas season.
The virus has redoubled its efforts and so must we with a new heightened vigilance and social contact kept to an absolute minimum even when and where permissible.
NHS Providers, which speaks for England’s 240 health service trusts, also backed Johnson’s action. Chris Hopson, its chief executive, said:
Trust leaders have consistently called for the restrictions to be as tough as needed to cut infection rates. It is therefore right that the government has acted quickly to avert significant extra deaths and levels of harm.
Trust leaders, who are seeing rapidly rising levels of Covid-19 patients and hospital admissions, will obviously hope that these measures will rapidly slow down virus spread and the number of cases. But that will depend on everyone following the rules meticulously.
This was a tough but necessary decision.
12.51pm EST 12:51
Scotland announces travel ban with rest of UK and curbs to Christmas mixing
There will be a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK throughout the festive period, and the five day Christmas window for indoor mixing will be reduced to one day, Christmas Day itself, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Near-lockdown level 4 restrictions will come into force for all of mainland Scotland from Boxing Day morning for three weeks, with non-essential shops and hospitality closing.
Sturgeon also announced a staggered return to school for pupils, with schools online only until 18 January, other than for the children of key workers who can return on 11 January.
Speaking to the media and the public after an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday afternoon, Scotland’s first minister emphasised that – while the situation is not currently as severe as that in England and Wales – it remained essential to act on a preventative basis.
Sturgeon said that information she had discussed at cabinet about the impact of the new strain of the virus suggested that this was “probably the most serious and dangerous juncture” since the beginning of the pandemic. Seventeen cases of the new variant have now been identified across Scotland but she said this was likely to be an understatement of its true prevalence.
Sturgeon, who has taken a consistently more cautious approach to Christmas guidance, said the new restrictions were designed to prevent more of the new strain entering Scotland and to reduce the risk of it spreading further in Scotland.
The festive bubble remains at a limit of 8 people from 3 households, with a strong recommendation to keep it as small as possible.
She urged people not to meet indoors with other households over Christmas if they can possibly avoid it. Travel within Scotland will be allowed on Christmas Day only, and she would be asking Police Scotland to consider how to enforce the cross-border travel ban.
Sturgeon said:
Standing here saying this makes me want to cry because I know how harsh it sounds…but this virus is unfair.
She said that she understood that people would look at Scotland’s case numbers and query whether these immediate tightening of restrictions was necessary.
This new strain is transmitting so quickly that it will very soon overwhelm us.
Updated at 1.50pm EST
12.48pm EST 12:48
The Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has said the new strain of coronavirus was “genuinely part of the explanation” for a rapid surge in cases across Wales.
He told BBC Wales:
We know as of today there are hundreds of people in all parts of Wales who are now suffering from this variation, and those people will be more infectious to other people.
And other people are more likely to catch the virus because of the way the virus has changed.
I think when you look at those numbers which are so similar to the numbers in London and the south-east, it is genuinely part of the explanation.
12.19pm EST 12:19
Back to Johnson’s press conference.
Q. Three days ago you knew about the new strain and rising infections, and still you said it was ‘too late’ to cancel Christmas – how do you expect people to follow the rules if they keep changing?
Johnson says their understanding of the velocity of transmission of the new variant changed.
Q. Are you going to put additional support in place for businesses that have to close now?
Johnson points to the loan scheme and the extended furlough scheme (until April).
Updated at 12.55pm EST
12.12pm EST 12:12
Wales lockdown brought forward to midnight tonight with curtailed Christmas
The first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has announced lockdown restrictions will come into force across Wales from midnight tonight, with festive relaxation plans cancelled except for Christmas Day.
The decision followed urgent talks over the new strain of coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in parts of the country. Drakeford said the pattern of transmission in London and the south-east of England, linked to the new variant, is “remarkably consistent with the rapid acceleration of transmission in Wales” in recent weeks.
In a statement, the first minister said the latest evidence suggested that the new strain is present “throughout Wales” and said this required an “immediate response”.
The Welsh government’s cabinet met this afternoon to discuss the “worrying new development in the pandemic”, as well as advice from senior medical and scientific advisers, including the impact on NHS Wales.
Drakeford said:
The situation is incredibly serious. I cannot overstate this. We have therefore reached the difficult decision to bring forward the alert level 4 restrictions for Wales, in line with the action being taken in London and the south-east of England. These new restrictions will come into effect from midnight tonight instead of during the Christmas period.
The planned relaxation of rules from 23 to 28 December has been scrapped and festival bubbles are now limited to Christmas Day only.
The first minister said:
Unfortunately, we must also look again at the arrangements for Christmas – we cannot expose people to the risk of this new, more virulent strain of coronavirus.
We will therefore change the current rules, which allow two households to come together to form a Christmas bubble over a five-day period, so that they will apply on Christmas Day only.
Throughout the alert level 4 period, a single person household will be able to join with one other household.
Drakeford added:
While we all want to avoid further disruption to businesses and plans for Christmas, our overriding duty is to protect lives here in Wales. We know that 2021 will be a different and a better year. Our economy will recover. Christmas will come again.
There had been plans for Wales to go into lockdown from 28 December, but the changes mean this has been brought forward and will begin at 00.01 on Sunday 20 December.
The whole of Wales will enter the highest level of lockdown – level 4 – with all but essential shops shut from the end of trading today, and the public told to “stay home”.
Updated at 12.24pm EST
12.06pm EST 12:06
Q. As you knew about the new variant as far back as November, was it reckless to promise five days of Christmas against scientific advice?
Johnson says they’ve always tried to follow scientific advice.
The science has changed, in terms of what we’ve learned about its transmissibility, so we couldn’t ignore that and had to take these extra steps, he adds.
Q. What does ‘keeping it short’ over Christmas Day mean?
Whitty says to the extent you possibly can – keep it small, keep it short and keep it local, and remember that the vulnerable are vulnerable.
Minimise the amount of contact, keep it at a distance and the shortest period you can.
Vallance adds you must assume that you might be infectious and that’s how you have to behave.
Johnson adds one in three infections are still being transmitted asymptomatically and people need to remember this.
12.01pm EST 12:01
Q. Should police be stopping people from travelling outside tier 4 and knocking on doors of households breaking the rules on Christmas Day?
Johnson says he’s sure the bulk people will continue to take this seriously.
Q. Is this an admission that the tier system has failed and are we essentially back in a lockdown until March?
Johnson didn’t answer this.
Q. Why has Britain got this new variant so bad, do other countries have it, and how did Britain get it?
Vallance says lots of mutations of the virus have occurred around the world.
It may be in other countries as well and it may have started here but we can’t be sure, he says, which is why the sequencing is so important.