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Millions of people must cancel their Christmas get-togethers and most shops have to close in London and much of southern England, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday. The
Prime Minister has imposed a new, stricter level of coronavirus restrictions on the region to curb rapidly spreading infections. Mr Johnson said Saturday that the capital and large areas in
southern England already placed under the highest level of the UK government's three-tiered coronavirus alert system will move into a new Tier 4 that requires all non-essential shops,
hairdressers and indoor leisure venues to close after the end of business hours on Saturday. With just days to go until Christmas, Johnson also announced that a planned easing of socialising
rules that would have allowed up to three households to meet in “Christmas bubbles” from December 23 to 27 will be canceled for Tier 4 areas and sharply curtailed in the rest of England.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said. He said he concluded there was “no alternative open to me” and people must
sacrifice this Christmas to have a better chance of protecting the lives of loved ones. No mixing of households will be allowed in Tier 4 except under very limited conditions outside in
public places. Travel in and out of Tier 4 areas won't be allowed unless essential. In the rest of England, people will be allowed to meet in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead
of five, as the government originally planned. The changes upend the plans of millions of people who were looking forward to gathering with family and friends next week and force scores to
revise their travel plans at the last minute. Before Saturday, government officials maintained they would allow small, private gatherings to go ahead. While restaurants, pubs, bars and
theaters in much of England are already closed and prepared for a bleak Christmas, all shops in Tier 4 areas that don’t sell food or medicine received only hours’ notice that they must
shutter after Saturday until officials review the situation on December 30. The British Retail Consortium said it was “hugely regrettable news”, especially coming just two weeks after a
month-long lockdown in England ended and at the height of the year’s peak retail period. “Retailers have invested hundreds of millions of pounds making stores COVID-secure for customers and
staff,” said Helen Dickinson, the trade body’s chief executive. “For businesses, the government’s stop-start approach is deeply unhelpful." In announcing the more restrictive category,
Johnson said that a fast-moving new variant of the coronavirus that is more than 70 per cent more transmissible than existing strains appears to be driving the rapid spread in London and
southern England. While London fared relatively well in controlling the virus throughout the fall, the city now has the highest infection rates in England. Officials said the new mutation
accounted for some 60 per cent of the capital's cases. “There’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” the prime minister stressed, or that vaccines
will be less effective against it. England's chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said the UK has alerted the World Health Organization that the new variant identified this week appears
to be accelerating the spread of COVID-19. The government's scientific advisers came to that conclusion based on preliminary modelling figures, and they are continuing to analyse the
available data, he said. Viruses mutate regularly, and scientists have found thousands of different mutations among samples of the virus causing COVID-19. But many of these changes have no
effect on how easily the virus spreads or how severe symptoms are. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, told reporters after receiving notification from England this week
that the UN health agency had “no evidence this variant behaves differently” and that it was similar to a variant initially reported among mink in Europe. She said scientists would study the
virus strain to see if there might be any difference in how it prompts an immune response in people. In Wales, authorities said they decided to move up a lockdown planned for after
Christmas and people must stay at home from 12:01am Sunday. The move will largely scrap Christmas gatherings in line with the rules for southern England. The Scottish government said
Saturday that residents would be subject to Tier 4 restrictions starting on December 26, and a travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK will be in force throughout the holiday
period. Northern Ireland already said a fresh lockdown would start once Christmas is over. UK officials reported another 27,052 confirmed cases on Saturday and 534 further deaths of people
who had tested positive within the previous 28 days. The UK has Europe’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll behind Italy, standing at 67,075.