LONDON (AP) – Children in England will return to school and people will be able to meet a friend outside for coffee in two weeks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday as he slows down one of the strictest European pandemic blockages.
But those who long for a haircut, a meal at a restaurant or a pint in a pub have to wait almost two months, and people will not be able to hug their loved ones with whom they do not live until May at the earliest.
Johnson said the government’s plan it would remove the country “cautiously, but irreversibly” from the blockade.
“We are proposing what I hope is a unique path to freedom,” he told House of Commons lawmakers.
Britain had the deadliest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, with over 120,000 deaths. Faced with a dominant variant of the virus that scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly than the original virus, the country has spent much of the winter under a tight deadlock – the third since March 2020. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and non-essential shops are closed, people are urged not to travel outside their local area and foreign holidays are illegal.
This will start to change slowly, on March 8, when children return to school and people are allowed to meet a friend or relative for a conversation or an outdoor picnic. Three weeks later, people will be able to meet in small outdoor groups for sports or relaxation.
According to the government’s plan, the shops and hairdressers will reopen on April 12. So are pubs and restaurants, albeit only outdoors. Indoor venues, such as theaters and cinemas and indoor venues in bars and restaurants, are scheduled to open on May 17, and limited crowds will be able to return to sports stadiums. It is also the earliest time the British can afford foreign holidays.
The final stage of the plan, in which all legal limits on social contact are removed and nightclubs can reopen after 15 months of closure, is set for June 21.
The government says all data could be delayed if infections increase.
The announced measures apply to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have slightly different roadblocks, with some children returning to school in Scotland and Wales on Monday.
Hopes for a return to normalcy are largely based on the rapid inoculation program in the UK, which has provided more than 17.5 million people, a third of the country’s adult population, the first of two vaccine doses. The government aims to provide every adult with a vaccine by July 31.
Johnson said the vaccines would help Britain put “a damn year” behind it.
But the government warns that the return to social and economic life of the country will be slow. Johnson’s Conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too soon after the first spring blockade and rejecting scientific advice before a short “circuit breaker” blockade in the autumn.
He does not want to make the same mistakes again, although Johnson is under pressure from conservative lawmakers and business owners, who argue that restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive the battered 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 paying the wages of nearly 10 million workers.
The director general of the British chambers of commerce, Adam Marshall, welcomed the “clarity” regarding the reopening of the data, but said that “the future of thousands of companies and millions of jobs remains a thread”.
Johnson said the government’s March 3 annual budget statement will contain new measures “to protect jobs and livelihoods in the UK”
The government says further relaxation will depend on vaccines that are shown to be effective in reducing hospitalization and death, with infection rates remaining low and no new virus variants appearing that are throwing the plans into disarray.
Two UK studies released on Monday showed that COVID-19 vaccination programs contribute to a sharp decline in disease and hospitalization, raising hopes that vaccines will work just as well in the real world as in closely monitored studies.
Preliminary results from a Scottish study found that the Pfizer vaccine reduced hospital admissions by up to 85% four weeks after the first dose, while the AstraZeneca vaccine 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 taking COVID-19 by 70% after one dose, which rose to 85% after the second.
The scientists pointed out that the results were preliminary.
Johnson said that even with vaccines, reopening society would inevitably lead to more infections and deaths.
He said that “there is no credible path to a zero-COVID Britain, or indeed a world without COVID.”
But, he added, “we cannot persevere indefinitely with restrictions that weaken our economy, our physical and mental well-being and our children’s chances of life.”
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