A travel ban will remain in place until Jan. 1, the government said in a statement early Sunday, adding that it is monitoring developments and is considering additional measures regarding other modes of transport.

Netherlands added that in early December, sampling of a case in the country had revealed the same virus strain as that found in the UK.

In measures to control the spread of the virus, the government issued a “do not travel” advisory, unless it is absolutely essential.”Netherlands ban flights from UK after detecting new coronavirus strain”

The ban came after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scientists announced on Saturday that the new strain of coronavirus identified in the country is up to 70% more infectious.

Johnson also said London and southeast England, which are currently in the highest level of a three-tier system of rules, would now be placed in a new Tier 4 level.

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The Press Association said Johnson would be back in his Downing Street office on Monday after himself recovering from the virus.

A Number 10 source quoted by Sky News said the 55-year-old was “raring to go”. Johnson has been recuperating at the British prime ministerial retreat, Chequers, outside London since his release from hospital on April 12

Johnson spent three days in intensive care and later admitted “things could have gone either way”, after contracting the virus.

The prime minister’s return to work comes as pressure intensifies on his government on several fronts over its handling of the crisis.

Health department figures released Saturday showed a further 813 people had died in hospital after contracting Covid-19, pushing the official number of fatalities to 20,319.

Home Secretary Priti Patel described it as “a deeply tragic and moving moment”.

Passing 20,000 was an unwanted milestone, as the medical director of NHS England Stephen Powis and Britain’s chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance had said previously during the pandemic that keeping the number of fatalities below 20,000 would be “a good outcome”.

“The nation today will be deeply moved by the figures of the number of people who have died,“ Patel said during the daily Downing Street briefing, AFP reported.

It was an increase in the 684 deaths reported the previous day and come after the government claimed the virus had hit its peak.

However, there was some optimism as the number of new infections fell by 473 to 4,913, according to the same health department figures.

University of Oxford analysis also showed that the numbers dying in England may be on a downward spiral as it said a third of the 711 additional deaths recorded in the latest government figures on Saturday occurred more than a week ago.

Despite that, the latest figures confirm Britain has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world and the actual death toll could be much higher when deaths in the community are taken into account, particularly at care homes.

As well as a rise in fatalities, questions are being asked of the government over shortages in personal protective equipment and a lack of widespread testing, particularly of frontline health and social care workers.

There is also pressure, reportedly from within the ruling Conservative party, to relax social distancing rules.

Johnson ordered the country into lockdown on March 23, but Patel said ministers would not yet give a date for any relaxation of the rules.

“We’ve made a great deal of progress, but actually we’re not out of the woods yet, we really are not,“ she said.

The lockdown was extended on April 16 and is due for review on May 7.

Concern over political influence

Meanwhile, there was brewing row over the role played by Johnson’s controversial chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, after it emerged he attended meetings of the main scientific group advising ministers on the coronavirus pandemic.

Downing Street denied that Cummings and another advisor, Ben Warner, were members of the politically independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

However, following reports in The Guardian newspaper, the government admitted that Cummings had sat in on group meetings.

In a statement, a Number 10 spokesman said they attended meetings “to understand better the scientific debates concerning this emergency”.

The statement added it was “factually wrong and damaging to sensible public debate” to suggest the committee’s advice was affected by the government.

Labor’s health spokesman, John Ashworth told BBC radio on Saturday that his “concern” was “that political advisers have influenced the debate”.

And a former Conservative frontbencher, David Davis, tweeted that “we should publish the membership of SAGE: remove any non-scientist members”.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, health officials announced that as many as 5,000 severely ill coronavirus patients could be treated with plasma from people who have recovered from the illness as part of a new approach.

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Almost a third (32.5%) of UK surgeons say they do not have access to enough masks, gowns and other clothing to keep them safe, a new survey reveals.

The widespread lack of PPE for frontline staff is “a disgrace”, according to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which collated the views of 1,978 surgeons and surgical trainees.

“There are often young doctors and nurses, many with kids at home, putting themselves in challenging situations without proper PPE. It’s not acceptable, morally or ethically, that people should put their lives at risk to do their job unless they have adequate PPE,” Sue Hill, the college’s vice-president, told the Observer, the Guardian reported.

The findings come amid a growing row after health secretary Matt Hancock sparked controversy by urging NHS staff not to use any more PPE than is clinically justified. The Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association criticized his remarks.

Hill was responding to the college’s survey, which also found:

Up to 70% of surgeons in some parts of the UK have seen shortages of PPE in their hospital in the last month;

Across the UK 41% of surgeons believe there is enough PPE where they work, but 39% of those in Scotland and 36% in the north-west of England report a shortage;

Half of the surgeons doubt they will be able to get a test to tell them if they have COVID-19.

Hill, a vascular surgeon in Wales, said Hancock’s pledge that millions of pieces of PPE are on order mean little to NHS staff, given the heavy usage COVID-19 involves. “When I’m operating I put on a hat, visor, proper ventilating mask, two pairs of gloves and a full-length surgical gown – six pieces of PPE. So does my assistant, two scrub nurses and two anesthetists. That’s 36 pieces of PPE for just one operation.”

One of the surgeons said the lack of masks was scandalous. They and their colleagues were “spoken to” by hospital managers for wearing masks and gloves when visiting patients onwards, even though one coronavirus carrier infected at least six members of staff. Another said: “We’ve been sent to war but with no protective armor.”

Overall, 72% of surgeons believe the UK will not be able to end the three-week-long lockdown until the general public can get tested for COVID-19.

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All but essential shops must close immediately and people should no longer meet family or friends or risk being fined, Johnson said in a televised address to the nation.

Johnson had resisted pressure to impose a full lockdown even as other European countries had done so, but was forced to change tack as projections showed the health system could become overwhelmed.

Deaths from the virus in Britain jumped 54 to 335 on Monday as the government said the military would help ship millions of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks to healthcare workers who have complained of shortages.

“From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction – you must stay at home,” Johnson said in a televised address, replacing his daily news conference, Reuters reported.

They would only be allowed to leave their homes to shop for basic necessities, exercise, for a medical need, to provide care or traveling to and from work where absolutely necessary.

“That’s all – these are the only reasons you should leave your home,” he said, adding that people should not meet friends or family members who do not live in their home.

“If you don’t follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings,” he warned.

The new measures here would be reviewed in three weeks, and relaxed if possible.”

“These rules are not optional,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.

The opposition Labor Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn said he supported the measures, and police chiefs said the moves were sensible, and that they would be working with the government on how to enforce them.

The government will close all shops selling non-essential goods, Johnson said, including clothing stores, as well as other premises including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms, and places of worship.

The British Retail Consortium said shop owners understood the gravity of the situation.

The tougher tone followed evidence at the weekend that many were ignoring official guidelines about social distancing as they flocked to parks and beauty spots.

Under the new measures, the government will stop all gatherings of more than two people in public who do not live together and stop all social events, including weddings and baptisms but not funerals.

Parks would remain open for exercise but gatherings would be dispersed, Johnson said.

Later on Monday, Britain’s lower house of parliament is expected to approve emergency legislation giving authorities sweeping powers to tackle the outbreak, including the right to detain people and put them in isolation to protect public health.

“Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses,” Johnson said in his address.

Earlier, in a letter pleading with him to increase PPE supplies, more than 6,000 frontline doctors warned they felt like “cannon fodder” and were being asked to put their lives at risk with out-of-date masks, and low stocks of equipment.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted there had been issues but promised action was being taken. He said the army would drive trucks throughout the day and night to get supplies to medical staff.

“It’s like a war effort – it is a war against this virus and so the army has been incredibly helpful in getting those logistics so we can get the supplies to protect people on the front line,” he told the BBC, saying the health service now had 12,000 ventilators, 7,000 more than at the start of the crisis.

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