England is now scheduled for a second national lockdown in the coming days, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced.
The government is discouraging all non-essential travel, though people will still be able to travel abroad for work, providing they follow England’s quarantine rules upon their return.
The measures will only apply to England, as healthcare is handled by the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The new shutdown will remain in place until December 2, at which point Johnson hopes the virus will be sufficiently under control to enable England to tackle the virus, once again, on a region-by-region basis.
He has been under pressure for weeks as the UK’s top scientists warned that a lockdown was needed in England, instead of the current localized system.
There have now been more than 1 million confirmed cases in UK, with 21,915 new cases reported on Saturday, taking the total to 1,011,660.
The Office for National Statistics now estimates that 1 in 100 people in England have Covid, an average of 568,100 people.
