Boris Johnson urges Britons to stay at home as national lockdown begins

London [UK], January 5 (ANI): As Britain enters into its third lockdown due to the rising COVID-19 cases, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people to stay at home and protect the overburdened United Kingdom National Health Service.
In a series of tweets, he expressed hope that as the inoculation process has begun in the country, the UK is "tilting the odds against COVID-19 in favour of the British People".
"I want to say to everyone right across the United Kingdom that I know how tough this is, I know how frustrated you are, I know that you have had more than enough of government guidance about defeating this virus. But now more than ever, we must pull together," he wrote on Twitter.
"With every jab that goes into our arms, we are tilting the odds against Covid and in favour of the British people. And, thanks to the miracle of science, not only is the end in sight but we know exactly how we will get there. But for now, I am afraid, you must once again stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives," his subsequent tweet read.
In an address on Monday, Johnson announced the reimposition of lockdown in England as a more transmissible variant of Covid-19 fuels a surge in infections and hospitalizations across the country. Britain on Monday also began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
Britain has been administrating two vaccines against COVID-19, one made by Pfizer and BioNTech and the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. More than one million people have already received their first dose
Johnson had said that as of Monday, almost 27,000 people with Covid were in hospitals -- 40 per cent more than at the peak of the first wave of the outbreak in April last year.
"Our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic. In England alone, the number of COVID patients in hospitals has increased by nearly a third in the last week to almost 27,000 and that number is 40 per cent higher than the first peak in April," he had said.
The announcement for England follows an announcement earlier Monday that Scotland would go into lockdown. Wales and Northern Ireland, the other two nations of the United Kingdom, were already in lockdown. (ANI)