Due to the severity of the neo-coronavirus outbreak, the British Parliament has approved a four-week lockdown that will go into effect in the early hours of Thursday morning (November 5).
Councillors approved the plan Wednesday by a vote of 516 to 38.
Starting at 1 a.m. Thursday, all non-essential businesses, including bars, restaurants, hairdressers, golf courses, gyms, swimming pools, entertainment and sports venues, will be closed until Dec. 2.
The closure was proposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and with the opposition Labor Party backing the measure, the result of the parliamentary vote was not in doubt. However, the Labor Party criticized Johnson for acting too slowly.
However, some members of Johnson’s conservative party voted against the measure, saying that a nationwide lockdown was too harsh.
The plan was designed to prevent a neo-coronavirus epidemic from spiraling out of control and overwhelming Britain’s national health care system. This is a 180-degree turn for Johnson. As recently as late last week, he was sticking with his three-tier alert system, which tailors restrictions to specific areas according to their infection rates.
There are now more than 20,000 new cases of neocoronavirus in the UK every day. The official number of new coronavirus deaths in the UK is now the highest in Europe, at 47,250.
British scientists warn that the “worst-case scenario” of 80,000 deaths could get worse if drastic measures are not taken.
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