British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has plunged England into a dramatic lockdown, raising the country’s coronavirus threat level to the highest level of five as the country’s medical system comes under immediate threat of being overwhelmed.
People can only leave home to go to work if essential, shop for necessities, to exercise, care for someone, or to seek medical help.
The stage five lockdown, expected to be in place until at least seven weeks, comes as the virus continues to rage across the country and existing lockdown measures and mask wearing has had limited impact.
There were 58,784 new cases — a 42 per cent rise in a week — and 407 deaths recorded on Monday.
Mr Johnson said if ''our understanding of the virus does not change again'' then the vaccination program in place would see an easing of measures in late February. He said that by the middle of February ''if everything goes well'' all care home residents and carers, everyone over 70, everyone clinically extremely vulnerable and all NHS frontline workers will have been offered a vaccination.