LONDON (AP) – The slow but steady march of a three-month blockade of Britain remains on track, even as coronavirus cases rise in other parts of Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, confirming that the business from hairdressers to bookstores will be able to reopen next week.
Johnson said it was too early to decide, however, whether UK residents would be able to make summer trips abroad. He confirmed that the government will test a controversial “vaccine passport” system – a way for people to prove they have protection against COVID-19 – as a tool to help return safe travel and major events.
Four weeks after England took the first step in the blockade by reopening schools, Johnson said the UK vaccination program was doing well and that infections were declining. He said the next step would be as planned on April 12, with the reopening of hair salons, beauty salons, gyms, non-essential shops and courtyards of bars and restaurants.
“We’ve set the roadmap and we stick to it,” Johnson said at a news conference.
But, he added, “We cannot be satisfied. We can see the waves of disease affecting other countries and we have seen how this story goes. ”
The ban on spending the night away from home in England will also be lifted on April 12, and outdoor venues such as zoos and car cinemas can operate again.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland follow similar, but slightly different, paths without blocking.
The UK has recorded almost 127,000 deaths from coronavirus, the largest number in Europe. But infections and deaths have dropped sharply during the current blockade and since the start of a vaccination campaign that gave a first dose to more than 31 million people, or six in 10 adults.
The government aims to give all adults at least one vaccine shot by July and hopes a combination of vaccination and mass testing will allow for indoor socialization and large-scale events to return.
It is said that all adults and children in England will be encouraged to do routine coronavirus tests twice a week as a way to eliminate new outbreaks. The government has said that free side flow tests will be available free of charge from Friday by post, from pharmacies and at workplaces.
Lateral flow tests give results in a few minutes, but are less accurate than the PCR buffering tests used to officially confirm COVID-19 cases. But the government insists they are reliable and will help find people who contract the virus but have no symptoms.
Currently, the British have banned the law from going on holiday abroad under the extraordinary powers that Parliament has given the government to fight the pandemic. The government said on Monday it would not lift the travel ban until May 17 – and maybe later.
“The government hopes that people will be able to travel to and from the UK to take their summer vacation this year, but it is still too early to know what is possible,” he said in an official update.
Once the trip resumes, the UK will classify countries on a traffic light system as green, yellow or red, depending on their level of vaccinations, infections and worrying new virus variants. People arriving from “green” countries will have to be tested, but will not face quarantine.
The government is also testing a “COVID status certification” system – often referred to as “vaccine passports” – that would allow people who want to travel or attend events to show that they have either received a coronavirus vaccine. tested negative for the virus, either recently had COVID-19 and therefore have some immunity.
A number of events will begin this month, including football matches, comedy shows and marathon races. The government said the first events would be based solely on testing, “but in future pilots vaccination and acquired immunity are expected to be alternative ways to demonstrate status.”
The issue of vaccine passports has been debated around the world, raising questions about how many governments, employers and locations have the right to know about a person’s virus status. The idea is opposed by a wide range of British MPs, from center-left opposition politicians to members of Johnson’s Conservative Party, and the policy could face stiff opposition when it is presented to Parliament later this month.
Conservative lawmaker Graham Brady said the vaccine passports would be “intrusive, expensive and unnecessary.” The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, called the idea “British”.
The government said vaccine passports were almost inevitable, as many countries certainly required proof of COVID-19 status for entry. And he said banning British companies from asking customers for similar evidence would be “an unjustified intrusion into how companies choose to protect their premises”.
The government said, however, that vaccine passports would never be needed to access “essential public services, public transport and essential shops”.
Johnson acknowledged that vaccine passports raised “complicated ethical and practical issues” and stressed that their introduction was not imminent.
“We are somehow far from completing any COVID certification plans in the UK,” he said.
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