Prime minister Boris Johnson has decided to delay the lifting of covid lockdown by four weeks. He will be officially announcing it today in a press conference.
Many senior ministers and commoners voted to delay the covid lockdown lifting which was planned for 21st June initially. This means that the nightclubs will remain closed and the pubs, cinemas, and sports will continue under limitations.
England had initially announced to move into stage four according to the roadmap invented by the government I.e., lifting of covid lockdown on 21st June – which meant the capacity limit will be called off and all the other social distancing restrictions will be lifted.
Many scientists had advised the government to delay the lockdown by at least a month so that more people can be vaccinated and the majority can receive their second doses of the vaccine as the cases rise again due to the Delta variant.
A delay will aid the scientists and medical practitioners to work more towards effective vaccines and to find other efficacy of the vaccination process by working on the relationship between infection and hospitalization ratio.
Edward Argar, the Health Minister of England stated that he cannot confirm the delay in covid lockdown before the official announcement made by the prime minister but they are concerned over the rising cases of covid-19 because of the Delta variant as the number of patients in the hospital has started to increase again.
The rising infections in the UK are almost 90% due to the Delta variant – first discovered in India. It is believed that the Delta variant is 60 times more infectious than the Alpha variant which was discovered in Kent and had dominated the covid cases in the UK previously.
The most severe cases of the coronavirus at the moment are among those people who are unvaccinated or still haven’t had their second dose. According to the health minister, if they get a window of four weeks of lockdown, they will be able to administer at least 10 million doses of vaccine which will increase the overall protection against the newly mutated strains of coronavirus.
Professor Andrey Hayward of University College London is also a member of the Sage group which mainly advises the government over health issues stating that easing up the restrictions right now would mean fanning the flames of rising infections. The UK recorded 7490 cases of coronavirus and had 8 deaths in the past 28 days. The average of the positive cases is rising daily.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had stated previously that the government needs to be cautious in relaxing the restriction to avoid the irreversible.
Scotland had announced level zero covid restrictions by 28th June whereas Northern Ireland had announced 21 June as the last date to administer stricter covid lockdown restrictions.
On the other hand, the conservative groups have shown their concerns about the vulnerable businesses which are already on the verge of getting wiped out from the industry, and if the covid lockdown stays for another month they might not be able to survive.
Former minister Mark Harper, who is the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Backbenchers, warned that if the government doesn’t lift covid lockdown as planned, then the restrictions will carry on the way till the autumn; which pretty much sums the end of the year. He stated that the delay in lifting the covid lockdown has more political background than safety and protection of the population.
Variant and newer mutations will continue to arise from time to time. The world needs to start living with it. The effective vaccines may not be able to grant 100% protections against the newer variant and they never will but it’s on us to revive life to normalcy.
The CRG deputy chairman also registered his disapproval of the delay in the lifting of lockdown stating that this continuation of restriction will cause “devastating consequences” on people’s mental health and business.
