In London, an emergency regime was introduced due to the fact that the city’s health care system is on the verge of collapse. The corresponding statement was made by the mayor of the British capital Sadiq Khan on his page in Twitter Thursday, January 8th.
“I declared an emergency in London because the threat the virus poses to our city has brought it to a point of crisis,” said Khan.
He stressed that currently every 30th Londoner has COVID-19.
“If we do not take immediate action now, our health care system could be overwhelmed and more people will die,” added the mayor.
More than 2.8 million coronavirus cases were registered in the UK as of 8 January, according to Worldometer. Over the entire period of the epidemic, at least 78.5 thousand patients died. Recovered – over 1.3 million people.
In late December, Khan criticized the imposition of a lockdown in the UK capital. He noted that the quarantine was a “blow” for citizens and businesses.
The head of the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Health, Matt Hancock, announced in mid-December that a new strain of coronavirus had been identified in the country. At that time, there were about 1,000 cases reported in the south of the country. According to experts, the new strain is more infectious.