One in 50 folks in England have been contaminated with the virus, officers say.

As England re-entered lockdown on Tuesday, new figures confirmed that one in 50 folks had been contaminated with the virus, and officers warned that some restrictions on each day life might nonetheless be wanted subsequent winter.

Talking at a information convention, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to focus authorities efforts on rolling out its strained mass vaccination program meant to forestall a surge in infections of a extremely transmissible variant of the virus from overwhelming the well being service.

With greater than 1,000,000 folks, or 2 p.c of the inhabitants, having been contaminated, the nation is in a race towards time to distribute vaccines.

Mr. Johnson was talking on a day when the federal government stated greater than 60,000 new circumstances had been recorded for the primary time. Standing alongside him, Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, stated that the variety of each day deaths, now averaging round 530, was anticipated to rise and that if folks didn’t observe a lockdown order to remain at dwelling, the chance was “terribly excessive.”

He additionally warned that Britons may face some restrictions nicely into the long run.

“We would must convey a number of in, within the subsequent winter for instance — that’s doable — as a result of winter will profit the virus,” Professor Whitty stated.

Mr. Johnson stated that 1.3 million folks had already been vaccinated and that he hoped that essentially the most weak, a gaggle together with the aged and numbering round 13 million, could possibly be protected by the vaccine inside about six weeks, turning the tide within the battle towards the virus.

“We in authorities at the moment are utilizing each second of this lockdown to place that invisible protect across the aged and the weak within the type of vaccinations,” he stated.

Mr. Johnson stated that England can be locked down till inoculations reached the 4 most weak teams: residents in nursing properties and those that look after them, everybody over the age of 70, all frontline well being and social care employees, and everybody who’s clinically extraordinarily weak.

“If we reach vaccinating all these teams, we could have eliminated big numbers of individuals from the trail of the virus,” he stated.

That aim, he added, could possibly be achieved by the center of February.

However to try this, the tempo of vaccinations might want to improve drastically.

The 4 teams that the prime minister cited embody 13.9 million folks in England, in line with Nadhim Zahawi, the minister overseeing the vaccine effort.

Because the marketing campaign began on Dec. 8, fewer than 800,000 folks in England had been vaccinated as of Dec. 27, the final date when knowledge was obtainable.

However with the introduction on Monday of the primary doses of a vaccine developed by the College of Oxford and AstraZeneca — pictures which can be simpler to move and don’t must be saved at very chilly temperatures — British officers stated that the marketing campaign might now be ramped up.

To satisfy Mr. Johnson’s goal, some two million doses must be given each week.

Mr. Johnson additionally stated he was planning a brand new system to make sure that these touring to Britain had a damaging coronavirus take a look at earlier than arrival. However he was compelled to defend himself towards expenses that he moved too slowly to order the lockdown, and confirmed poor judgment by insisting over the weekend that many faculties in England ought to reopen after the winter vacation on Monday — solely to reverse that call on Monday night time.