Scenes at London railway stations and on the roads last night, as people rushed to get on trains to leave the capital ahead of the introduction of tier four restrictions:
We have seen this so many times in so many places since the pandemic began. The authorities announce the imposition of restrictions in areas ahead of time, and make no effort to close the intercity railway stations, giving people plenty of time to flee and take the virus with them. We first saw this, from what I remember, upon the announcement that parts of Italy would be put in lockdown back in February. The major London stations should already have been closed when the announcement of the restrictions was made.
Reports from passengers suggest that the trains were absolutely packed, with standing room only.
This BBC article
Coronavirus: UK R number back above one
was reporting that 1.5% of people in London were inferred from testing data to have Covid-19 in the last week, when it was published two days ago and that figure was rapidly increasing. The chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty has said today that 60% of new Covid-19 infections in London are now of the VUI-202012/01 strain, and that proportion is rising too. We can therefore expect that about 1.5% or more of those people you see in the pictures from the railway stations had Covid at that time, and at least 60% of those would be carrying the VUI-202012/01 strain. They probably infected a good number of their fellow passengers in the cramped carriages, and then took it to their destinations about the country, outside of the new tier four restrictions. Therefore, there is no hope that the new strain is contained in the tier four areas, and a new nation-wide national lockdown is likely on the way.