Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said on Tuesday that the relaxation of lockdown rules depended on the pace of vaccinations. Mr Gove said the UK faced a “race against time” to vaccinate as many people as possible over the next few months before ministers could look at easing restrictions in March. That would take into account the three-week lag for immunity to begin after the initial injection. The UK also announced £4.6 billion ($6.23bn) in new lockdown grants to help businesses survive the latest restrictions. Companies in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 after business groups and unions said significant job cuts were inevitable without more help. Mr Johnson announced the new order to stay at home on Monday night as he said the health system was less than three weeks away from being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. The measures will be reviewed in mid-February. The World Health Organisation said the need for a lockdown was shared around Europe and in the US. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said there was no end in sight for a pandemic that has already killed more than 1.85 million people. “This idea that seems to be ‘Ah, we’re all sick of it,' and 'This doesn’t apply to me’, that’s got to go away,\" Ms Harris said. \"It really is all hands on deck. We’re at intense pandemic in Europe, intense pandemic in the US. \"The more you can bring the transmission down, the better chance you have of your vaccination strategy working.”","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The National","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/pf/resources/images/logo_rectangle.png?d=279"}},"articleSection":"Europe","keywords":["Europe","World","Special Pages","Coronavirus","UK News","Video"],"description":"More than 1 million infected as Prime Minister Boris Johnson orders third national lockdown","thumbnailUrl":"https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/xAKGUFSdEfwQV1FvNFUAyKkxMI4=/400x267/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/d27020bajtkr6c.cloudfront.net/06-10-2021/t_ad1ce504101f4b00ad7d6bd91b319379_name_image.jpg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/uk-records-new-high-of-60-000-daily-covid-19-cases-1.1141069"},"video":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/uk-records-new-high-of-60-000-daily-covid-19-cases-1.1141069","name":"As Europe shuts down again, how can they fight the pandemic this time round?","description":"A video that illustrates this article - As Europe shuts down again, how can they fight the pandemic this time round?","image":"https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/zrZZUC8U6THqZag4I8w5aZ4mXTY=/1440x810/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/d27020bajtkr6c.cloudfront.net/06-10-2021/t_ad1ce504101f4b00ad7d6bd91b319379_name_image.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/xAKGUFSdEfwQV1FvNFUAyKkxMI4=/400x267/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/d27020bajtkr6c.cloudfront.net/06-10-2021/t_ad1ce504101f4b00ad7d6bd91b319379_name_image.jpg","contentUrl":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/2021/06/10/as-europe-shuts-down-again-how-can-they-fight-the-pandemic-this-time-round/","duration":"PT179.477S","uploadDate":"2021-01-05T18:06:51Z","dateCreated":"2021-01-05T18:06:51Z","datePublished":"2021-01-05T18:56:56Z","dateModified":"2021-06-10T19:40:33Z"}}