London (AFP)

Nearly 11 million people in England, or a fifth of the population, will be subject to the strictest local restrictions against the new coronavirus, with the announcement on Friday of a tightening in several regions in the coming days.

Confined in a block on March 23 during the first wave, the country most bereaved in Europe by the pandemic (almost 46,000 dead) reacts to the resurgence of contamination in a localized way, the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeking to avoid general containment.

But local restrictions in one form and another now affect more than half of the population in England and a fifth under the most restrictive.

The region of Nottingham (central England) thus passed Friday morning to the level of maximum health alert, out of the three existing.

Its more than 800,000 inhabitants can no longer meet between different homes, with very rare exceptions, and bars and pubs that do not serve food have closed.

The West Yorkshire region will suffer the same fate overnight from Sunday to Monday.

"In West Yorkshire, infection rates are among the highest in the country and continue to rise rapidly," said a statement from the Department of Health on Friday, which said that Covid-19 cases have increased by 65% over a week at hospital in Leeds, the region's largest city.

Local governments being competent in the matter, the other British provinces also tackle the question in dispersed order.

The more than three million inhabitants of Wales have for a week been the first Britons to be returned to confinement, at least until November 9.

In mid-October, Northern Ireland closed pubs and restaurants for a month and decided to extend the school holidays.

Scotland last week adopted a warning system similar to that of England, but at 5 levels.

According to an international scientific study carried out by researchers from several universities and laboratories and revealed on Thursday by the Financial Times, a new variant of the virus born this summer in Spanish farmers has quickly spread in Europe and now constitutes the majority of new cases of Covid-19 in several countries.

In the United Kingdom, where Spain is a preferred destination for British tourists, this mutated version of the virus would now concern more than 80% of cases of contamination.

© 2020 AFP