London: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the new strain of the coronavirus is “out of control” and suggested parts of England will be stuck in the new, highest tier of restrictions until a vaccine is rolled out.
More than 16 million Britons are now required to stay at home after a lockdown came into force Sunday in London and southeast England and the government scrapped plans to relax rules on socialising at Christmas.
The measures to control the fast-spreading new variant of the virus forbid household mixing in those areas and restrict socialising to just Christmas Day across the rest of England. Residents across the country were told to keep to their local areas, and extra police were being deployed at rail stations to stop people travelling out of London.
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Sputnik International
Updated / Thursday, 17 Dec 2020
09:43
Numbers were not included on top of 11,911 positive cases reported between 9 and 15 December
An extra 11,000 positive coronavirus tests missing from official figures in Wales demonstrate how serious the position in the country is, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
Maintenance work on Public Health Wales systems at the end of last week meant the numbers were not included on top of 11,911 positive cases reported by the agency between 9 and 15 December.
Today, Mr Drakeford denied the data had been missing from the country s figures in recent days and was known by the Welsh Government.
He told BBC Breakfast: This was planned upgrading of the computer system, none of the data is missing, everybody who had a positive test in Wales was told that last week, everything was uploaded on to our Track, Trace and Protect system.
The UK government is reviewing the tiered lockdown allocations for different parts of the country as scheduled by law on Wednesday, even as millions of more people in and around London moved into the highest alert level of Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions after a worrying spike in infections. With the addition of the UK capital and surrounding areas of Essex and Hertfordshire to Tier 3, or near complete lockdown, around 61 per cent of England s population is now living under the toughest lockdown rules which impose a ban on inter-household mingling indoors and a closure of all restaurants and bars except for takeaways and deliveries.