Faced with criticism over the timing of the lockdown and the abrupt closure of all schools, Johnson on Wednesday defended his decision by saying the new, more contagious, coronavirus variant and the threat it posed to the health service offered little choice. "And when we begin to move out of lockdown I promise they will be the very first things to reopen. "And as was the case last spring, our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will be not a big bang but a gradual unwrapping." "Looking at excess deaths, we began the year with death levels below the 5-yr average," Stripe said. He said the figures indicated that the number of excess deaths, adjusted for population, would be at the highest level since 1940.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 06, 2021 21:33 UTC