UK goes into new Covid lockdown as cases surge

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday ordered England into a new national lockdown to try to slow a surge in Covid-19 cases that threatens to overwhelm parts of the health system before a vaccine programme reaches a critical mass. Johnson said a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus was spreading at great speed and urgent action was needed to slow it down. He said that if the timetable of the vaccination programme went as planned and the number of cases and deaths responded to the lockdown measures as expected, it should be possible to start moving out of lockdown by the middle of February.