Everyone in England must stay at home, except for permitted reasons, during a new coronavirus lockdown that is expected to last until mid-February, the PM says.
All schools and colleges will be close to the majority of students and will switch to remote learning from Tuesday.
Boris Johnson warned that the next few weeks would be the “hardest yet” among emerging cases and patient numbers.
By mid-February, all home care residents and their caregivers, all frontline health and social care staff, and those who are clinically highly vulnerable, will receive one dose of vaccine.
Scotland earlier released a stay-at-home order and Wales said schools and colleges must shut until 18 January for most pupils.
- Schools in Northern Ireland will have a “extended period of remote learning” the Stormont Executive said.
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Speaking from Downing Street, Mr. Johnson advised the public to obey the latest lockout laws shortly before they became law in the early hours of Wednesday.
All the latest steps in England will last until at least mid-February, he added, when a new, more contagious strain of the virus spreads throughout the United Kingdom.
The PM added that he claimed that the nation was entering the “the last phase of the struggle”
Hospitals have been under “more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic” he added.
And he repeated the slogan used earlier in the pandemic, encouraging people to “stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives” immediately.
