Britain began its third Covid-19 lockdown on Tuesday with citizens under orders to stay at home and the government calling for one last major national effort to stem the virus before mass vaccinations turn the tide.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak announced a new package of business grants worth $6.2 billion to help keep people in jobs and firms afloat until measures are relaxed gradually, at the earliest from mid-February but likely later.
Britain has been among the countries worst-hit by Covid-19, with the second highest death toll in Europe and an economy that suffered the sharpest contraction of any in the Group of Seven during the first wave of infections last spring.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the new lockdown late on Monday, saying the highly contagious new coronavirus variant first identified in Britain was spreading so fast the National Health Service (NHS) risked being overwhelmed within 21 days.
On Tuesday, Johnson cancelled a planned trip to India later this month, citing the need to oversee the pandemic response at home.
In England alone, some 27,000 people are in hospital with Covid-19, 40% more than during the first peak in April, with infection numbers still expected to rise further after increased socialising during the Christmas period.
A Savanta-ComRes poll taken just after Johnson's address suggested four in five adults in England supported the lockdown.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 75,000 people have died in the United Kingdom within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, according to official figures.
Under the new rules in England, schools are closed to most pupils, people should work from home if possible, and all hospitality and non-essential shops are closed.
The semi-autonomous executives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have imposed similar measures.
As infection rates soar across Europe, other countries are also clamping down on public life. Germany is set to extend its strict lockdown until the end of the month, and Italy decided on Tuesday to keep nationwide restrictions in place this weekend while relaxing curbs on weekdays.
On Tuesday, Oman has registered its first case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant that emerged in Britain, in a resident who arrived from the UK, the health ministry said.
Also, Iran on Tuesday confirmed its first case of a new Covid-19 variant first detected in Britain, as daily deaths dropped below 100 for the first time in over six months.
1.86 million dead
The coronavirus has killed at least 1,863,497 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally on Tuesday based on official sources. More than 86.2 million cases have been registered.
The US is the worst-affected country with 362,123 deaths, followed by Brazil with 196,591, India with 149,886 and Mexico with 127,757.
Sunak's latest package of grants adds to the eye-watering 280 billion pounds in government support already announced for this financial year to stave off total economic collapse.
More than a million people in Britain have already received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The government aims to vaccinate all elderly care home residents and their carers, everyone over the age of 70, all frontline health and social care workers, and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, by mid-February.