UK Health Minister Matt Hancock said the situation with the new type of COVID-19 is “out of control.” He is quoted by Sky News.
In his opinion, residents of the country should behave as if they already have a virus. “Especially in the areas of England with the highest levels of restrictions,” he said.
The minister added that while everyone is looking forward to Christmas, the new contagious variant of COVID-19 is spreading too fast, so the government was forced to act decisively.
Hancock suggested that the intensified measures could last for several months before the introduction of the vaccine begins. The minister also called “completely irresponsible behavior” the crowd of people at the train stations, which occurred due to the fact that Londoners decided to leave the city before the entry into force of the new lockdown.
Earlier, the Public Health Service of England said that the mutated type of coronavirus was discovered in the UK in September, but it began to spread widely from mid-November. The increase in the number of cases of morbidity precisely because of the new variant was first revealed at the end of November.
On December 14, UK Health Minister Matthew Hancock announced that a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in the country, which is spreading faster than the original form. The virus spreads more easily from person to person and is therefore more contagious, he said. Later, experts recalled that a new type of coronavirus is spreading faster than the already known, but it is still impossible to talk about its greater danger. In addition, there is no evidence that the mutation of the virus reacts differently to the vaccine.
