British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was clear on Sunday: tougher restrictions could be decided in England to combat the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, attributed to a new variant of the virus. In the United Kingdom, one of the countries in Europe most bereaved by Covid-19, nearly 55,000 additional people have tested positive for the virus in 24 hours. The threshold of 50,000 was thus exceeded for the sixth consecutive day.
“We may have to do things in the coming weeks which will be more difficult in several parts of the country,” Boris Johnson told the BBC, referring in particular to the closure of schools, a measure taken at the end of March during the first pandemic wave. Even though the conservative leader has declared the education of children a “priority”, he stressed the need to recognize “the impact of the new variant of the virus”.
The opposition calls for a national reconfinement
Each of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom decides on its strategy for combating the virus. Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer pleaded on Sunday to put in place a national containment “within 24 hours”, telling reporters the virus was “clearly out of control” and should not wait . Three quarters of the country’s population have so far been reconfigured and the start of the school year has been postponed for some students, especially in London and in the south-east of England, particularly affected by the rise in cases.
In areas where schools are open, Boris Johnson encouraged parents to send their children there, stressing that they were “safe” there. “The risk for children and young people is very, very low,” he said.
“Very anxious” teachers
The National Education Union (NEU), a teachers’ union, believes that schools should remain closed for safety reasons. “Schools play an important role in the spread of the infection,” Jerry Glazier, member of the NEU’s national executive committee, told Agence France-Presse. “So we think schools are dangerous, for children and for educators,” he said, adding that “a lot of teachers were very anxious about going back to work.”
In the Sunday Mirror, Keir Starmer criticized the government’s flip-flops. “Confusion reigns among parents, teachers and students over who will be back in school tomorrow and who will not,” he said.
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