Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
The UK is working “actively” on a plan to quarantine travelers arriving at hotels to protect themselves from coronavirus infections from overseas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
“We want to make sure we protect our population, we protect this country from reinfection from abroad,” Johnson said, adding that the UK must consider that there is “at least a theoretical risk” that a new variant of the disease may be immune to vaccines your government is deploying. “This idea of looking at hotels is definitely something we’re actively working on right now.”
In a joint broadcast interview on Monday, the Prime Minister also warned that lifting the blocking rules too quickly risked causing a new wave of infections in the UK, amid growing pressure from members of his Conservative party to set a deadline. for the reopening of the economy.
Ministers had previously pledged to ease restrictions once the goal of vaccinating nearly 15 million people considered most vulnerable to the disease has been met, which Johnson said is still on track to achieve February.
Number of victims
But with the UK death toll hovering over 100,000 this week and infections still high (albeit declining), there are growing indications that the timing for lifting the blockade is shrinking, even to the point of summer.
This has alarmed prominent Conservatives, including Mark Harper and Steve Baker, who have led demands for the government to establish plans to lift the closure and especially to reopen schools, and the criteria it will use to do so.
“Once the vulnerable are protected, the first priority should be the reopening of schools,” Harper said on Twitter on Monday.
Johnson reiterated that his government’s priority is to reopen schools as soon as possible, although he said any lifting of the closure should be done in a “prudent and responsible” manner.
Infection rate
“There’s nothing I want to do more than reopen schools,” he said. “We want to do it in a way that is consistent with fighting the epidemic and maintaining the infection rate.”
The Johnson administration sees vaccines as the UK ticket out of closure and is considering further tightening border controls to try to prevent strains that could undermine the effectiveness of the doses administered. Ministers are expected to make a decision this week on quarantining travelers arriving at hotels, as countries such as Australia and Singapore have done.
To date, the UK has administered a first dose of the vaccine to more than 6.3 million people, leaving some 8.7 million elderly and vulnerable people to be inoculated in the next three weeks to reach the target of Johnson.
The United Kingdom uses plans developed by Pfizer Inc. together with BioNTech SE, and by AstraZeneca Plc works with Oxford University. A third vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. has been approved, but the first deliveries are not expected until spring.
“AstraZeneca is committed to delivering two million doses a week in the UK and we don’t expect any change,” Johnson spokesman Jamie Davies told reporters when asked about the vaccine launch. Work at Pfizer’s factory in Belgium means “supplies will be lower this month and next” than previously expected, he said, but then increase so that total volume “stays the same from January to March “.
(Updates with details of the vaccination program in the last three paragraphs)