UK tightens restrictions, nixes Christmas gatherings over COVID-19 spread [View all]

LONDON — Millions of people must cancel their Christmas get-togethers and most shops have to close in London and much of southern England, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday as he imposed a new, stricter level of coronavirus restrictions on the region to curb rapidly spreading infections.

Johnson said Saturday that the capital and large areas in southern England already placed under the highest level of the U.K. government’s three-tiered coronavirus alert system will move into a new Tier 4 that requires all non-essential shops, hairdressers and indoor leisure venues to close after the end of business hours Saturday.

With just days to go until Christmas, Johnson also announced that a planned easing of socializing rules that would have allowed up to three households to meet in “Christmas bubbles” from Dec. 23 to Dec. 27 will be canceled for Tier 4 areas and sharply curtailed in the rest of England.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2020/12/uk-tightens-restrictions-nixes-christmas-gatherings-over-covid-19-spread.html