UK PM Boris Johnson has effectively cancelled Christmas for London, the Southeast and the city of Peterborough, banning Brits from meeting family and friends from other households, due to a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned. In England, those living in Tier 4 areas should not mix with anyone outside their own household at Christmas,” Johnson said in a televised press conference on Saturday.
Across the rest of the country, the Christmas rules allowing up to three households to meet will now be limited to Christmas Day only, rather than the five days as previously set out.
The latest restrictions were made in response to a new variant of the coronavirus that reportedly spreads faster, though there is currently no indication that it is any more deadly or immune to vaccines.
Johnson claimed the new strain “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the old variant”, and that most cases of it have been recorded in those areas now under Tier 4 restrictions.
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