The new strain of COVID-19 is out of control and people need to behave as if they already have the virus, especially in the new Tier 4 areas of England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned.
The five-day Christmas bubble period has been reduced to just Christmas Day for England, Wales and Scotland and scrapped completely for areas in England under new Tier 4 rules but remains in Northern Ireland.
The fresh tough coronavirus measures which MPs will vote on in January affect those in London, most of the South East, and parts of eastern England.
Mr Hancock said everybody was looking forward to Christmas, but the new infectious and rapid-spreading strain was out of control and the government had to act “quickly and decisively.
He suggested the strengthened measures could be in place for months, telling Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: It (the new strain) is an enormous challenge, until we can get the vaccine rolled out to protect people. This is what we face over the next couple of months.
He added: Everybody, particularly people in Tier 4 areas, needs to behave as if they might well have the virus that is the only way we are going to get it under control.
He said controlling the new strain of COVID-19 is more important now than ever, that people stick to the rules and reduce social contact because this is deadly serious.
This is a deadly disease, we need to keep it under control, and it has been made more difficult by this new variant. And he said scenes of people queueing at train stations, rushing to leave London before the new measures came into force this morning, was totally irresponsible behaviour.
He said the British people were paying the price for the PM’s incompetence and that Mr Johnson’s indecision and weak leadership was costing lives and costing jobs.
Mr Hancock said cases have rocketed during the last few days and warned keeping the new variant under control until a vaccine has been rolled out would be very difficult.
As of 8 o’clock yesterday morning 350,000 people have been vaccinated. We plan by the end of the weekend to have something around the half-million mark. So we can see the way out through this but it is going to be a difficult few months, he added.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of “gross negligence” and said the prime minister should apologise for his handling of the pandemic.