LOCKING DOWN
BORIS Johnson has not ruled out a third national lockdown in January 2021 as a mutant strain of coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming rate.
Wales and Northern Ireland have already entered short-term national lockdowns and it's possible that England and Scotland will follow suit.
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
2
Will there be another national lockdown in January?
A third national coronavirus lockdown in England has not yet been announced.
However, on Christmas Eve, the PM refused to rule out a third lockdown as the death toll surpassed 70,000.
And Mr Johnson appeared to suggest tight measures are imminent during an appearance on The Andrew Marr Show on January 3.
During the interview, he refused to rule out curfews, a return to a single hour of exercise a day and a ban on household mixing, as well as a total national lockdown.
This comes as hospital admissions soared past April's peak figures after Christmas and December 28 saw infections jump by 41,385.
Hospitals may be forced to set up coronavirus units in tents outside their main buildings, it has been claimed.
Emergency medicine consultant Simon Walsh, deputy chair of the British Medical Association's UK consultants committee, said patients are already being left in ambulances for hours at a time because hospitals are overwhelmed.
He told the Press Association news agency: "Hospitals are even considering setting up tents that you would see outside in an actual major incident."
But the Nightingale hospital in London is set to reopen to help the rise in numbers.
Other Nightingales across England are also being "readied" for use if needed - after pictures showed the facilities lying empty and stripped bare.
The hospital crisis comes as the capital and other areas face being plunged into a brutal "tier 5" lockdown with even tighter restrictions than are currently in place amid fears tier 4 simply isn't slowing the virus enough.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said freedoms must be "very finely balanced" in 2021 to control the spread of the virus.
He said: "Certainly my own view is that schools opening is an absolute priority.
"But society - and eventually this is a political decision - will have to balance keeping schools open, if that is possible, with therefore closing down other parts of society.
"It is going be a trade-off between one or other. You cannot have everything. You cannot have the whole of society opening, and schools opening and further education and universities, and keep R below 1 with this variant.
"I think there are some very, very tough choices. We are going to see these continued pressures at least over the next two or three months."
Mr Johnson and the government had said they want to avoid another national lockdown but that depends on the impact the Tier 4 system has on preventing the spread of coronavirus and the new variant.
There is even a possibility that brutal Tier 5 restrictions will be put in place in the worst hit areas - though this has not been confirmed yet.
But with the rapid rise in cases following the new Covid strain, it is more likely than not that another shutdown will be introduced.
Since exiting the four-week lockdown on December 2, England has been under a much stricter tiered local lockdown system.
Currently, 24 million people are living under Tier 4 restrictions across the UK.
In Tier 4 areas, pubs, restaurants and other hospitality have been forced to close, but can do takeaway, delivery and drive through.
Indoor entertainment venues are also shut- including cinemas, casinos, bowling alleys, soft play and other venues.
There is a ban on mixing between different households.
Businesses that have been forced to close are able to access the same furlough package of support that they had before.
There are fears of England entering another national lockdown as families in Northern Ireland were plunged into a six-week clamp down from Boxing Day (December 26).
Meanwhile, all of Wales is under alert level four meaning people must stay at home and not mix with other households.
Another lockdown in Scotland has not been ruled out.
What will the coronavirus lockdown rules be?
A national lockdown has not been announced - but as of December 29, 2020, restrictions in London, the south east and east of England are in the highest alert level.
Brits under Tier 4 restrictions are expected to stay at home while travel - both national and international - has also been banned by law.
If the country entered another national shutdown, it's likely that Brits would be advised to work from home, and non-essential retail would close.
Pubs, bars and restaurants would be shut as would gyms and hairdressers - restrictions already in place in Tier 4.
It's likely that household mixing would be banned and internal UK-wide travel would be discouraged.
Schools, universities and colleges remained open during the lockdown in November.
Term time has been staggered so students that are not in exam years will be returning from January 11 - a week later than expected.
2
Will there be a third Covid wave?
Coronavirus infections are certainly on the rise.
The coronavirus death toll surpassed the grim total of 75,000 - after 454 fatalities were recorded in Britain on January 3.
It marked the sixth day in a row that the Covid infection figure has broken 50,000, bringing the total number of positive tests in Britain to 2,654,779.
A new strain of coronavirus has been discovered in the South-East of England and health ministers fear it is "frighteningly transmissible".
coronavirus news
A government source told The Sun: "What we do not know yet is whether the new strain is more or less likely to cause you harm, but what we have learnt is that it will pass to person to person much more easily and that is what we are really worried about."
Read More on The Sun
The new strain is being blamed for a sudden uptick in hospitalisations in London.
And there are fears that people are catching it despite wearing PPE and socially distancing, pointing again to a surge in the virus's ability to spread.
Topics