Covid variant spread rapidly in Britain even during lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus reached the country in late January 2020. As of 10 January 2021, there have been 3,072,349 confirmed cases and 81,431 deaths, the world’s eighth-highest death rate per hundred thousand population and the highest number overall in Europe. There were 85,792 deaths where the death certificate mentioned COVID-19 by 25 December (see Statistics). More than 90% of those dying had underlying illnesses or were over 60 years old. There has been some disparity between the outbreak’s severity in each of the four nations. Health in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision.

On 22 February, in Scotland, COVID-19 became a “notifiable disease”, and a surveillance network involving 41 GP locations was established to submit samples of suspected patients, even if they had no travel history. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for England launched a public health information campaign to help slow the virus’s spread, and began posting daily updates in early February. The HSC began testing for COVID-19 during February 2020, as of 19 February there were 35 completed tests all of which returned negative results. Also in February, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, introduced the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 for England, and hospitals set up drive-through screening. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty, outlined a four-pronged strategy, relevant to England, to tackle the outbreak: contain, delay, research and mitigate. In Wales, the Chief Medical Officer, Frank Atherton, said that the Government would be taking “all appropriate measures” to reduce the risk of transmission.

In March, the UK governments imposed a stay-at-home order, dubbed “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”, banning all non-essential travel and closing most gathering places. Those with symptoms, and their households, were told to self-isolate, while those with certain illnesses were told to shield themselves. People were told to keep apart in public. Police were empowered to enforce the measures, and the Coronavirus Act 2020 gave all four governments emergency powers not used since the Second World War. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak forecast that lengthy restrictions would severely damage the UK economy, worsen mental health and suicide rates, and cause additional deaths due to isolation, delays and falling living standards. 

All four national health services worked to raise hospital capacity and set up temporary critical care hospitals, including the NHS Nightingale Hospitals. By mid-April it was reported that social distancing had “flattened the curve” of the epidemic. In late April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK had passed the peak of its outbreak. Daily cases and deaths slowly declined in May and June, and continued at a relatively low level in July and August. The total number of excess deaths in the UK from the start of the outbreak to mid-June was just over 65,000.

Cases rose significantly from late August onwards (by a factor of 3.2 from 15 August to 15 September). From October onwards, varying levels of lockdown were imposed in England, including in many areas a complete ban on households mixing at Christmas, in tandem with the discovery of a variant of concern which was blamed by Hancock for the rise in cases in the South East and precipitated further suspensions of international travel from the UK. A similar system was introduced in Scotland. Circuit breaker lockdowns took place in Wales and Northern Ireland. In December, the UK became the first country to authorise and begin use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (tozinameran).

 

Celebration, Resignation as Britain leaves the EU on Brexit Day

The U.K. finally left the EU after 47 years of membership, marking one of the biggest political and economic shifts in modern European history. Brexit brings about the end of a tumultuous three-and-a-half year departure process that has caused turmoil in the U.K.’s political establishment, economic uncertainty and heightened tensions between the U.K. and the EU — its largest single trading partner as a bloc. The departure on January 31 also marks the start of a “transition period” in which the U.K. remains a member of the single market and customs union and begins negotiations with the EU to strike a free-trade deal. During the transition period, the U.K. will not have voting rights on EU matters but will still be bound by EU rules. The U.K. government has set an ambitious (and some say, unviable) deadline of the end of 2020 in which a deal must be reached, otherwise it will leave the single market with “no deal” and will have to revert to World Trade Organization rules.

The road to Brexit : Britain is leaving the European Union

Britain will officially depart from the European Union, 1,317 days after voting in favor of leaving the bloc in a referendum that plunged the country into a three-year-long debate over its future. While this will be the official end of 47 years of Britain’s membership in what became the European Union, very little is set to change immediately. It’s the beginning of a transition period, scheduled to end on Dec. 31, during which London and Brussels must hash out the details of Britain’s future relationship with its European neighbors. Still, the moment carries enormous legal and symbolic weight. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet began their day with a meeting in Sunderland, the city in northern England that was the first to announce it had voted in favor of leaving the European Union on the night of the 2016 referendum. It was the first of a handful of celebratory, but noticeably muted, official events to mark the day, suggesting that a pro-Brexit government is seeking to avoid the appearance of gloating. In the referendum, 48 percent of voters wanted to remain part of the European Union, and later polls suggest that number may have grown since.

Flags will line Parliament Square and The Mall, the ceremonial avenue leading to Buckingham Palace, and government buildings will be lit up in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack. A countdown clock will be projected onto the front of 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence, along with a commemorative light display to “symbolize the strength and unity” of the four nations of the United Kingdom, the government said.

Courtesy : NY Times

Massive march against Brexit in London

Hundreds of thousands of people opposed to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union marched through central London to demand a new referendum as the deepening Brexit crisis risked sinking Prime Minister Theresa May’s premiership. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through London in a last-ditch, long-shot effort to reverse Britain’s looming split from the European Union, calling on lawmakers to heed the enormous anger among pro-Europeans and break the political stalemate by holding a second referendum.

The protesters, some of whom traveled for hours on buses and trains, set off from Hyde Park holding placards that nodded at their European roots — “50 percent French, 50 percent British, 100 percent European,” one boy’s sign read — and employed a bit of British understatement — “Brexit really not going well, is it?” read another. The crowd — organizers estimated a million people turned out, though there was no way to independently confirm it — clogged vast stretches of central London, with thousands of people still waiting to begin marching by the time those at the front of the rally were filling Parliament Square.

Brexit turmoil hits the streets

People in the United Kingdom stage rallies for and against Brexit as Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a parliamentary vote on her EU divorce deal.  British Prime Minister Theresa May was on Wednesday to face a vote of no-confidence by MPs in her party over her handling of negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s exit from the bloc. The head of a Conservative Party committee in charge of organizing no-confidence motions in the party leadership said he had collected the 48 letters of lawmakers necessary to trigger the vote. “The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded,” Graham Brady, head of the 1922 Committee, said in a statement.

“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 (GMT) on Wednesday 12th December,” he added. “The votes will be counted immediately afterwards and an announcement will be made as soon as possible in the evening.” A wing of the most ardent critics of the European Union in May’s party have been collecting letters calling on her to resign for some months. But May’s decision on Monday to postpone a parliamentary vote on her draft withdrawal agreement with the European Union that she was certain to lose sparked anger among many MPs. Several past members of May’s government — including former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson — have had their eyes on the post of prime minister. If May survives the motion, no second one can be taken by party members for another year. Several top members of her Cabinet quickly rallied to her support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s going on with Brexit and Theresa May?

People in the United Kingdom stage rallies for and against Brexit as Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a parliamentary vote on her EU divorce deal. Facing almost certain defeat, British Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal, saying she would go back to European Union leaders to seek changes to the divorce agreement. May’s move threw Britain’s Brexit plans into disarray, intensified a domestic political crisis and battered the pound. With EU officials adamant the withdrawal deal was not up for renegotiation, the country does not know on what terms it will leave — and whether May will still be Britain’s leader when it does.

In an emergency statement to the House of Commons, May accepted that the divorce deal she struck last month with EU leaders was likely to be rejected “by a significant margin” if the vote were held Tuesday as planned. May said she would defer the vote so she could seek “assurances” from the EU and bring the deal back to Parliament. She did not set a new date for the vote. The U.K.’s departure is supposed to take place on March 29. Opposition lawmakers — and ones from May’s Conservative Party — were incredulous and angry. Some accused her of trampling on parliamentary democracy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spain seeks to jointly govern Gibraltar

Spain seeks to jointly govern Gibraltar after the British territory voted in favor of remaining in the EU.

 Spain will seek to jointly govern Gibraltar with Britain following the British vote to leave the European Union, acting foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on Friday. The peninsula on Spain’s south coast, a British territory since 1713 known to its 30,000 residents as “the Rock”, is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations. Spain has long claimed sovereignty over the enclave.

“It’s a complete change of outlook that opens up new possibilities on Gibraltar not seen for a very long time. I hope the formula of co-sovereignty – to be clear, the Spanish flag on the Rock – is much closer than before,” Garcia-Margallo said. Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo told the territory’s parliament there would be no talks on such a deal. Co-sovereignty with Spain was rejected by around 99 percent of Gibraltarians in a referendum in 2002.

“Let others make irrelevant noises about flying flags over our Rock if they want to waste their breath. Such ideas will never prosper,” he said. The majority of people living in Gibraltar – designated as a British Overseas Territory – are British citizens with British passports, although thousands of Spaniards cross from mainland Spain every day for work. Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly in favor of Britain remaining in the European Union but were outnumbered in Thursday’s referendum and now face the consequences.

Garcia-Margallo said Spain would push to keep Gibraltar out of any general Brexit negotiations between Britain and the European Union and will aim for bilateral talks to seek co-sovereignty and eventually Spanish control of the peninsula. Britain rejects any notion of Spanish sovereignty against the wishes of the people of Gibraltar, one of the most prosperous regions in Europe with a thriving economy based on financial services, tourism and Internet gambling. The mood was subdued in Gibraltar on Friday, with people apprehensive and confused about what the result may mean for the movement of labor and capital over the border with Spain.

  

David Cameron Resigns

David Cameron has resigned, bringing an abrupt end to his six-year premiership, after the British public took the momentous decision to reject his entreaties and turn their back on the European Union. Just a year after he clinched a surprise majority in the general election, a visibly emotional Cameron, standing outside Number 10 on Friday morning alongside his wife, Samantha, said: “The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered.”

The prime minister campaigned hard in the divisive referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU, appearing at hundreds of public events up and down the country to argue that Brexit would be an act of “economic self-harm”. But a frustrated electorate used the poll to reject the status quo and, as the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, described it, “stick two fingers up” at Britain’s politicians. “I was absolutely clear about my belief that Britain is stronger, safer and better off inside the EU. I made clear the referendum was about this, and this alone, not the future of any single politician, including myself.

Sunset in London

Passengers travel on a London bus during sunset in London, Britain.

The Elizabeth Tower, aka ‘Big Ben’ in central London, Britain

The Elizabeth Tower, aka ‘Big Ben’ in central London, Britain.