At least 24 guests were reportedly at the gathering which was held just a few days before Mr Johnson’s 19 December announcement that Tier 4 Covid curbs would be implemented. This put London and the southeast of England under severe restrictions which meant many could not see their families on Christmas Day.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” he said just five days after the party.
(05.06.2020)
Clare Gardiner, head of cyber resilience and strategy at the UK National Cyber Security Centre — a branch of signals intelligence agency GCHQ — will become the centre’s first director-general, responsible for advising ministers on the “alert level” for the virus; which is similar to assessing the terror threat.
Ms Gardiner’s role at the NCSC involves advising businesses and public organisations on how to improve their cyber defences, and she will return to this post after her secondment at the centre. But her research background in epidemiology and medical statistics make her well-suited to the role, according to one person familiar with her appointment.
She will report to Dido Harding, who is in charge of the NHS test and trace service.
The decision to put a security official in charge is likely to cause consternation among public health experts, who have questioned whether the template of a terror analysis centre is appropriate for managing a viral pandemic,
(09 Dec 2020)
Vallance and chief medical officer Chris Whitty were asked if there was something that could be done in the structure in scientific advice that could be a bit more forensic about those restrictions on the sector that have a very big impact on certain people. The scientific advisers said they are trying very hard to get data but can´t give specific data on it, and nor can anyone else across the world.
Health secretary Matt Hancock has said that Boris Johnson’s tier system is “no longer strong enough” to deal with the new more virulent variant of coronavirus.
– Boris Johnson is set to announce a dramatic new national lockdown for England amid mutant Covid crisis
– Ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt urged immediate closure of schools, borders with household mixing ban
– Matt Hancock said the tiers were no longer strong enough to deal with the mutant version of coronavirus
– Suggested public‘s failure to comply with all the rules was to blame for inability to control outbreaks in Tier 4
– PM warned that curbs are about to get ‚tougher‘ – and admitted he is considering further closures of schools
– Government‘s core ‚Covid-O‘ committee has met this morning to decide on the next steps in the response
Professor Sir Mark Walport, a member of the Government‘s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said it would be difficult to keep the new, faster-spreading strain of the virus under control without ‚much tighter‘ social-distancing measures.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, the former chief scientific adviser said: ‚It‘s clear that this variant is transmitting more readily – it‘s transmitting more readily in younger age groups as well.
Government sources have indicated an announcement later will see more areas move into tier four – „stay at home“.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to detail the changes – which could be introduced within days – in the House of Commons after 14:30 GMT.
Dr Zubaida Haque, who sits on Independent Sage, has questioned why the government haven’t placed the whole country in the harshest tier of restrictions to save lives.
At the start of the month information about VUI-202012/01 was passed to the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Advisory Group (NERVTAG) committee, which advises England‘s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty. The group first discussed the strain at a December 11 meeting and began modelling its severity on the UK‘s epidemic.
Ministers were not made aware of the variant until last Monday, almost two months after its initial discovery, when they were told it was more infectious and probably behind the continued rise in cases in London and the South East.
– Port of Dover in Kent was dramatically closed to all freight vehicles leaving the UK for the next 48 hours
– Hauliers coming to UK will still be allowed but there are fears drivers won‘t travel to avoid being ‚marooned‘
– Countries including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Poland have announced restrictions on UK travel
– Comes after emergence of mutant strain of coronavirus in England which spreads quicker than predecessor
– PM Boris Johnson held a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee this afternoon to discuss travel ban
– Port of Dover later confirmed inbound freights were still arriving and France said movement would resume
– But Mr Johnson was unable to say exactly when the travel ban will be lifted as he expressed his frustrations
Responding to yesterday evening’s suspension of accompanied freight traffic from the UK to France, FDF CEO Ian Wright told Yahoo Finance UK: “Yesterday’s suspension of accompanied freight traffic from the UK to France has the potential to cause serious disruption to UK post-Christmas fresh food supplies – and exports of UK food and drink.
At an emergency press conference, Boris Johnson announced a third of England, including London and swathes of the home counties, will be shifted up to the brutal new tier from midnight.
Mr Marsh told MailOnline the new rules – which close non-essential retail and ban overnight stays in infection spots – meant little, because Mr Johnson has ‚lost the good will of the people‘ over the festive period.
The Prime Minister has announced tougher restrictions for large parts of South East England with a new Tier 4: ‘Stay at Home’ alert level.
The decision follows a rapid rise in infections attributed to the rapid spread of a new variant of COVID-19.
Based on preliminary modelling data, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread significantly more quickly and could increase R by 0.4 or more. New and existing data will continue to be analysed as we learn more about the variant.
Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, told a press conference that London was being moved to more stringent Tier 3 restrictions because cases were surging in and around the capital — and not directly in response to the discovery of the new variant.
The new tiers system for England came into force at midnight after the Commons approved it by 291 to 78 – but the healthy majority masked a disaster for Mr Johnson as a swathe of his own MPs abandoned him.
Scores of Tories joined the biggest uprising of this Parliament despite Mr Johnson personally waiting in the division lobbies and urging them to stick with the government, and he only secured victory because Sir Keir stopped short of opposing the measures.
Die Abstimmung endete mit 291 Ja- gegenüber 78 Nein-Stimmen. Zuvor hatte es aber deutlichen Widerstand von 55 konservativen Abgeordneten gegen ihren Regierungschef gegeben. Damit erlebte Johnson den heftigsten Gegenwind seit seinem Amtsantritt vor einem Jahr.
– Boris Johnson‘s new tiers have been approved by the Commons despite revolt by 55 Conservative MPs
– The rebellion was the biggest in this Parliament despite desperate please from the PM and Matt Hancock
– Sir Keir Starmer saved the PM by ordering Labour to abstain effectively guaranteeing the government victory
– But move left Mr Johnson exposed to anger on his own benches with measures branded ‚back of fag packet‘
– Sir Keir suffered his own rebellion with 16 Labour MPs breaking ranks to oppose the government‘s measures
Michael Gove sparked fury over the weekend when he claimed that every hospital in England would be ‚physically overwhelmed‘ by Covid-19 without the Government‘s new restrictions, as he tried to persuade MPs and the public to support the brutal curbs.
But NHS England figures paint an entirely different picture, with thousands more hospital beds spare this year than last winter.
Kanzlerin Merkel und die Ministerpräsidenten der Länder stehen unter Druck, auf die rasant steigenden Infektionszahlen zu reagieren. Dazu ZDF-Korrespondentin Shakuntula Banerjee.
He is to say the methods used by ministers will undo the unity of society and will lead to long-term authoritarian government.
Lord Sumption will say that ministers avoided Parliament through the Public Health Act which let them introduce lockdowns and other measures without the same level of scrutiny by the House of Commons or Lords.
Giving the Cambridge Freshfields annual law lecture, he will accuse the Government of ‚tendentiously‘ presenting guidance as if it was law – such as the two-metre social distancing rule.
A letter to Boris Johnson from the Northern Research Group – a newly-launched alliance of Tory MPs led by ex-Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry – outlines the group‘s demands, which include a tailored economic recovery plan for the north.
Mr Berry says that the virus could widen the North-South divide and ‚send the North into reverse‘. His group is now calling for Mr Johnson to ‚level-up the North‘ – something the PM claimed he would do following sweeping Conservative gains in the region in the General Election.
Regulations in the second level of lockdown means people must not socialise with anybody outside of their household or support bubble in any indoor setting nor socialise in a group of more than six outside – including in a garden.
The Labour leader’s dramatic move came after confidence in Mr Johnson’s approach was shaken by the release late on Monday of papers from his own expert advisers, which revealed the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) recommended a circuit-breaker as long as three weeks ago, along with the closure of all pubs and restaurants and more controls on social contacts in a bid to curtail the spread of the virus in England.
(13.10.2020)
Meanwhile, it emerged the government‘s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee – of which Prof Whitty is a member – officially recommended a two-week lockdown on September 21.
– A new three-tier strategy of local lockdown measures for England has been announced by Boris Johnson in efforts to curb rising Covid-19 rates
– Different areas of England will be split up into medium, high and very high alert levels
– These areas will be subject to the same national measures which currently apply across the country including a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants and the ‚rule of six‘
Any details of the plan are based solely on leaks to the media over the last week, including a document dated 30 September that was seen by the Guardian.
The draft traffic-light-style plan is designed to simplify the current patchwork of localised restrictions, which apply to about a quarter of the UK.
Bei der Coronavirus-Ampel handelt es sich um eine von der Europäischen Gesundheitsagentur (ECDC) erstellte Landkarte, die sich auf Daten der Mitgliedsstaaten stützt. Entscheidend ist die kumulative Anzahl der Neuinfektionen pro 100.000 Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner der letzten 14 Tage, die Rate der positiven Tests sowie die Testrate.