London: With UK grappling with a major surge in Covid-19 cases due to the new virus strain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England will enter another national lockdown, the third of its kind since the pandemic began in the country early last year.
In a televised address, he urged people across the country to “stay at home” except for permitted reasons, echoing the message back in March 2020.
Under the new lockdown, people are only allowed to go to work if it’s impossible to work from home, such as construction workers.
Some 44 million people or three-quarters of the population of England are already living under the toughest restrictions
Nearly 56 million people in England will return to a full coronavirus lockdown, possibly until mid-February, to try to cut spiraling infection rates, Johnson said.
The latest development came as another 58,784 people in the UK have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, marking the highest daily spike since the onset of the pandemic, according to official figures.
The country now has a total of 2,721,622 cases and 75,547 deaths.
