UK unveils 3-level lockdown plan; Liverpool at highest risk

TIL Desk/World/London/ The British government carved England into three tiers of coronavirus risk on Monday in a bid to slow a resurgent outbreak, putting the northern city of Liverpool into the highest-risk category and shutting its pubs, gyms and betting shops.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the three-level national system was designed to simplify and standardize a confusing patchwork of local rules, as the country enters a crucial phase.

Johnson said hospitals are now filling up with more COVID-19 patients than in March, when he ordered a national lockdown. These figures are flashing at us like dashboard warnings in a passenger jet, and we must act now, he said during a televised news conference.

Johnson told lawmakers that the goal of the new system was to save lives without shuttering our lives and our society through a new national lockdown. While the measures curb social interactions and the leisure industry, Johnson said shops, schools and universities will remain open in all areas.