Around 16 million Britons who have been planning to celebrate Christmas are required to stay at home as the UK government has enforced a lockdown following a rapid surge in Covid infections. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary of the United Kingdom has also warned people saying that the new virus strain has led to situation go out of control. “Cases have absolutely rocketed, so we’ve got a long way to go. I think it will be very difficult to keep it under control until the vaccine has rolled out. People in the new Tier 4 areas should behave as though they have it,” Hancock said.
Already, flight services to and from the UK to Europe have been stopped. Scientists state that this new mutation of the virus which is capable of 70% higher transmission was recently discovered in a patient during the month of September. However, the potency of the strain was only learnt last Friday, which led the UK government to sound alarm bells. Meanwhile, India’s WHO representative will be attending the UK Health Ministry meeting on Monday. There is no news about India banning any flights to the UK, however, the situation is being monitored by the Indian government closely.
In India 26,624 new Covid cases were registered on Sunday within 24 hours taking the total tally to 1,00,31,223 cases.
