Britain quietly reintroduces local lockdowns in England

Agencies | London

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Britain has quietly reintroduced local lockdowns in eight areas of England where the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus has been spreading, the Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) reported.

On Friday, the British government updated its guidance, saying people who live in the towns of Bedford, Blackburn, Darwen, Burnley, the boroughs of Kirklees, North Tyneside and London's Hounslow and the city of Leicester must now stay socially distant from those they don't live with, only meet people not in their household outside, work from home and avoid travelling in and out of those areas.

Everyone else in England can hug close friends and family members, meet up to six people indoors, go to work and travel nationwide.

The guidance was, unusually, not announced by the British government and instead updated on its website.

However, it was spotted by journalists on Tuesday morning.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey told reporters the new guidance had not come "out of the blue," after lawmakers for the local areas claimed they were blindsided by the updates.

Shadow health minister Jon Ashworth, a lawmaker for a Leicester constituency, said he will be questioning Health Minister Matt Hancock in Parliament over the changes on Tuesday afternoon.