Masked key workers on Underground provide only hustle-and-bustle

Commuters continued to head into work today after regulations enforcing England’s national lockdown as the stringent restrictions entered into force overnight amid spiralling coronavirus cases.

Transport for London and Network Rail are now urging people to only travel by train for ‘legally permitted reasons’ such as work or education, in a toughening of language that previously called for ‘essential travel’.

Traffic congestion levels in London were just over 20 per cent during rush hour this morning, roughly in line with the first two days of the week, although still well down on the average 2019 levels of up to 67 per cent.

Yesterday, on the first day of the third national lockdown for England, TfL revealed London Underground journeys were at just 18 per cent of normal levels and bus journeys were at 30 per cent of usual. 

This was compared to the start of the second lockdown last November which saw the Tube fall to 31 per cent and the bus drop to 50 per cent. The first lockdown last March saw usage drop below 10 per cent on Tubes and buses. 

The data compiled by BBC News therefore shows that the third lockdown has had a much bigger impact on travel in London than the second lockdown, but nowhere near the plunge caused by the first lockdown.

Data from TomTom for traffic congestion in London showed levels at 7am today were at 22 per cent today, which was the same as yesterday and up from 18 per cent on Monday, but down from the 53 per cent average in 2019.

At 8am today the figure was 23 per cent, which was again the same as yesterday and up from 19 per cent on Monday, but down from a 67 per cent average in 2019. The 9am figure was 21 per cent today. 

Today, MPs will return to Westminster to vote on regulations enforcing England’s third lockdown as the Commons was recalled from its Christmas recess for the second time to debate and retrospectively vote on the measures.

After announcing the measures on Monday night, Boris Johnson will update MPs on the new controls – which include the closure of schools to most pupils and a return to the stay at home order – before a vote due in the evening. The measures are expected to pass with ease, with Labour set to support the motion. 

It comes as the World Health Organisation said it would not recommend witholding the second vaccine dose for up to 12 weeks as the UK is. It is instead suggesting the interval should be between three and four weeks. 

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will outline a package of support for young people after GCSE and A-level exams were scrapped.

The regulations enforcing a lockdown in England came into effect at 00.01 on Wednesday, as new figures suggested one in 50 people had coronavirus last week.

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggested 1.1 million people in private households in England had Covid-19 between December 27 and January 2.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said people must take the ‘stay at home’ rules seriously as he warned that the country faced a ‘really serious emergency’.

His comments came as the number of daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK topped 60,000 for the first time, while a further 830 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday.

But in a sign of progress, the Prime Minister said that more than 1.3 million people have been vaccinated against the virus across the UK so far, including 23 per cent of all the over-80s in England. 

Prof Whitty, speaking alongside Mr Johnson at a Downing Street press conference yesterday evening, said the vaccine timetable was ‘realistic but not easy’, and that the NHS would have to use ‘multiple channels’ to get it out.

But questions have been raised over the roll-out, with a pharmacy chief questioning why the NHS is ‘scrabbling around’ for vaccinators when his industry was offering to help.

Simon Dukes, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Negotiating Services Committee, told The Telegraph: ‘Rather than scrabbling around trying to find retired GPs and nurses and anyone who has possibly dated skills, you’ve got an army of thousands of pharmacists up and down the country who administer the flu jab every winter.

‘We’ve been telling the NHS that we’re ready, willing and desperate to help. But we’ve been met by a de facto silence.’

Meanwhile The Times reported that two million doses of the Pfizer vaccines held back for boosters would be distributed in the next fortnight.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the Government to use the lockdown to create a ’round-the-clock’ vaccination scheme in order to end ‘this nightmare’. 

In a televised response to Mr Johnson’s statement, Sir Keir also confirmed he would back the new restrictions in the Commons vote today.

In other developments, Mr Johnson announced that the Government would be ‘bringing in measures to ensure that we test people coming into this country and prevent the virus from being readmitted’.

And he declined to guarantee that all children would be back in school before the summer holidays but said he is full of ‘optimism and fundamental hope’ that things will be different in the spring.

He told the briefing that he had ‘no choice’ but to plunge England into a third national lockdown in light of the figures, with the number of people in hospital with the virus in England higher than ever.

The latest data from NHS England showed there were 26,467 Covid-19 patients in hospital as of 8am yesterday – a week-on-week increase of 21 per cent. In London, the number stood at a record 6,816 patients, up 27 per cent in a week.

Professor Whitty said that because of the spike in people being admitted to hospital there will ‘inevitably’ be an increase in the number of coronavirus deaths later this month.

And he told the press conference: ‘If we did not do all the things all of us must now do, if people don’t take the stay at home seriously, the risk at this point in time, in the middle of winter with this new variant, is extraordinarily high.’

He said the risk level will gradually decrease over time with measures being ‘lifted by degrees possibly at different rates in different parts of the country, we’ll have to see’, but said some restrictions may have to be introduced again next winter.

All of the UK is now under stringent coronavirus restrictions. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon imposed a lockdown on Scotland for the rest of January, with a legal requirement to stay at home and schools closed to most pupils until February.

Schools and colleges in Wales will also remain closed until at least January 18 and move to online learning.

And in Northern Ireland – which is already under a six-week lockdown – ‘stay at home’ restrictions will be brought back into law and a period of remote learning for schoolchildren will be extended.