LONDON (AP) – Children in England will be back in class and people will be able to meet a friend outside for coffee in two weeks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, presenting a slow reduction in one of the strictest pandemic closures in Europe.
But those who want a haircut, a meal in the restaurant or a comb in a pub have almost two months to wait, and people won’t be able to embrace loved ones they don’t live with until May.
Johnson said the government’s plan it would move the country “cautiously but irreversibly” out of closure.
“We are deciding what I hope will be a path to freedom,” he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
Britain has had the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with more than 120,000 dead. Faced with a variant of the dominant virus that scientists say is more transmissible and more deadly than the original virus, the country has spent much of the winter under a tight closure: the third since March 2020. Bars, restaurants , gyms, schools, hairdressers and non-essential shops are closed, people are asked not to travel outside their area and foreign holidays are illegal.
This will begin to slowly change on March 8, when children return to school and people are allowed to meet a friend or family member to chat or have an outdoor picnic. Three weeks later, people will be able to gather in small outdoor groups to play sports or relax.
According to the government plan, shops and hairdressers will reopen on April 12, as well as pubs and restaurants, albeit only outdoors. Covered spaces such as theaters and cinemas, and indoor spaces for bars and restaurants are scheduled to open on May 17, and limited people will be able to return to sports stadiums. It is also the first date the British can be allowed on holiday abroad.
The final phase of the plan, in which all legal limits of social contact are removed and nightclubs can be reopened after 15 months of closure, is scheduled for June 21.
The government says all dates could be postponed if infections increase.
The measures announced apply to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have slightly different blockades, and some children return to class in Scotland and Wales on Monday.
Hopes for a return to normalcy rest largely on the UK’s rapid inoculation program which has given more than 17.5 million people, a third of the country’s adult population, the first of two doses of vaccine. The government’s goal is to give each adult a vaccine by July 31st.
Johnson said the vaccines would help Britain leave “a miserable year” behind.
But the government warns that the return of the country’s social and economic life will be slow. The Johnson Conservative government was accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first closure in the spring and rejecting scientific advice before a short closure of “circuit breakers” in the fall.
He does not want to make the same mistakes again, although Johnson is under pressure from some conservative lawmakers and businessmen, who argue that restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive the affected economy.
The Conservative government – normally an opponent of lavish public spending – spent 280 billion pounds ($ 393 billion) in 2020 to deal with the pandemic, including billions that paid the wages of nearly 10 million workers .
The director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, Adam Marshall, praised the “clarity” on the reopening of the dates, but said that “the future of thousands of companies and millions of jobs is still pending. a common thread “.
Johnson said the government’s annual budget statement on March 3 would contain new measures “to protect jobs and livelihoods across the UK”
The government says additional relaxation will depend on vaccines that are effective in reducing hospitalization and deaths, that infection rates are low, and that no new virus variants appear that disrupt plans.
Two UK studies published on Monday showed that COVID-19 vaccination programs contribute to a sharp drop in disease and hospitalization, raising hopes that the shots will work as well in the real world as they have. in carefully controlled studies.
Preliminary results from a study in Scotland found that the Pfizer vaccine reduced hospital admissions by up to 85% four weeks after the first dose, while AstraZeneca reduced admissions by up to 94%. In England, preliminary data from a study by health workers showed that the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 uptake by 70% after a dose, a figure that rose to 85% after of the second.
The scientists stressed that the results were preliminary.
Johnson said that even with vaccines, reopening society would inevitably lead to more infections and deaths.
He said there is “no credible route to a zero-COVID UK, or indeed to a zero-COVID world”.
But, he added, “we cannot persist indefinitely with constraints that weaken our economy, our physical and mental well-being and our children’s chances of life.”
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