Covid-19: Boris Johnson announces 4-week national lockdown for England from Nov 5

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a four-week national lockdown for England to stem a resurgence of the coronavirus.

The lockdown will begin from Thursday November 5 until the start of December.

The prime minister’s announcement came just hours after official figures showed that Britain’s confirmed coronavirus cases surged past the one-million mark.

Addressing a briefing from 10 Downing Street, Johnson said, “there was no choice but to be humble in the face of nature” and unless “tough action is taken now, the peak of mortality in the country could be even greater than the first wave” triggering a medical and moral disaster”.

Under the new measures, non-essential shops and hospitality will shut, households will not be allowed to mix inside and schools and universities will stay open.

The British government had previously pursued a localized approach to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic with a three-tier alert system according to local infection rates.

Infection rates are currently soaring across much of Europe, prompting new forms of lockdown across Germany, France and Belgium.