The United Kingdom (UK) has put England on another lockdown as it saw coronavirus cases breach past the one-million mark.

This as a huge number of infections threatened to overwhelm the health services.

The UK so far has the highest number of death tolls from the coronavirus disease and records a daily average of 20,000 cases.

In a suddenly convened news conference in Downing Street, Johnson said that England will be back into a lockdown for one month beginning past midnight on Thursday morning and will end on December 2.

England’s lockdown followed the same restrictions imposed on France and Germany amid spiking infection rates.

During the lockdown, people are ordered to stay home and may only leave for specific reasons such as work, education, shopping for essential goods and medicines, exercise, and caring for the vulnerable.

“Now is the time to take action because there is no alternative,” he was quoted as saying in a report by Reuters.

The UK will also revive its subsidy scheme for the affected workers to ensure that those temporarily laid off receive 80% of their pay.

Essential shops, universities, and schools will remain open while those belonging to the entertainment sector such as pubs and restaurants will be shut apart for takeaways.

All other non-essential shops will remain close.

Johnson’s order came after recommendations from scientists that the outbreak was going haywire and that action was needed to keep the virus outbreak at bay especially if families were to have any hope of gathering on Christmas.

It can be learned that opposition groups called out the prime minister for acting on the situation “slowly” when he ordered the first lockdown from March 23 to July 4.

He fell ill with the virus in March and was hospitalized in early April.

The UK so far has 46,555 deaths linked to the virus – defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test.

A broader death measure of those with the disease on their death certificates gives the toll as 58,925.

The UK has the world’s fifth-largest official death toll, after the United States, Brazil, India, and Mexico, based on a tally by the Johns Hopkins University.

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