Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Schools will be closed in the UK from today, people are allowed to leave the house only for shopping or to play sports, Dunyo news agency reported.

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has introduced the third nationwide quarantine in the UK. The tightening of restrictive measures is due to an increase in the number of cases of a new strain of coronavirus identified in December.

A new, more contagious mutation of COVID-19 is spreading at a rapid pace, according to the British Prime Minister, and action is urgently needed. Reuters quoted Boris Johnson as saying: "Our hospitals are now under more pressure from the coronavirus than at any time since the start of the pandemic ... We need to implement a national lockdown tough enough to slow the spread of this virus."

The exit from the self-isolation regime can begin by mid-February, if there is a positive trend in the number of deaths, as well as if the COVID-19 vaccination program goes according to plan.

According to media reports, more than 2.7 million people have already fallen ill with coronavirus in the UK, more than 75.5 thousand have died.The previous lockdown in the country was in effect from 5 November to 2 December. After him, the authorities introduced local restrictions in regions with a worsening epidemiological situation.

On 30 December, the UK approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, and vaccinations began on 4 January. Since December, the country has also been vaccinated against COVID-19 with Pfizer and BioNTech.