Boris Johnson has confirmed that most of the remaining Covid restrictions in England will be lifted on July 19 – in what has become known as ‘Freedom Day’.
From next Monday venues such as nightclubs, which have been closed for almost a year and a half, will be permitted to reopen, while other moves such as the Rule Of Six will be scrapped.
However, the Prime Minister has urged caution in the wake of the Delta variant causing Covid cases in the UK to surge – with more than 30,000 a day currently being recorded, and predictions that this could rise to 100,000 a day over the summer, almost double the peak of January this year.
Mr Johnson emphasised that the pandemic was ‘not over’ as he said: ‘This disease, coronavirus, continues to carry risks for you and your family.
‘We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday 19th July to life as it was before Covid.’
When the Prime Minister announced the roadmap out of lockdown, he said the route out of restrictions would be ‘cautious and irreversible.’
Is this still the case, or could there be more lockdowns ahead?
Although Boris Johnson has said that the lifting of restrictions is ‘irreversible’, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility that some may have to return in the event of another wave of infections, or the arrival of a new variant of the virus.
He explained ‘On the irreversibility point, obviously if we do find another variant that doesn’t respond to the vaccines, if heaven forbid, some really awful new bug should appear, then clearly we will have to take whatever steps we need to do to protect the public.
‘But on balance, given the massive success of the vaccine rollout, given the fact that this is a propitious moment, a good moment to do it given the coming summer holidays, the natural firebreak we have there, and given the difficultly of us opening up in the context of the colder, autumn and winter months, I think this is a balanced and cautious approach.’
Currently, experts don’t think there will be another lockdown this year.
Despite worries around the Delta variant, scientists hope that the success of the vaccine programme means that hospital admissions will continue to fall.
The PM has refused to deny that there will have to be further lockdowns, but said that the roadmap was ‘cautious but irreversible’.
There has been some suggestion that local restrictions may return, as cases of the Delta variant appear to be surging in areas where vaccination take-up is limited.
Professor Neil Ferguson told the BBC that new rules would be unlikely even if case numbers did increase.
‘In the worst-case scenario, if we have a new variant pop up which does manage to evade the vaccines, say late summer early autumn, there may be a need to roll back on some of these measures at least temporarily until we can boost people’s immunity.
‘Do I think it’s likely to happen? No, I don’t. I think we are much more likely to be on a steady course now out of this pandemic, at least in this country.’
Others are less optimistic. Some believe the UK is currently experiencing a ‘third wave’, that could see hundreds of daily deaths in hospitals.
Professor Graham Medley of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies was asked if the country might be facing hundreds of daily deaths to Covid-19 if all restrictions on social contact had been lifted as planned on June 21.
He replied: ‘Oh easily. I think we still might at some point.’
‘Although the numbers of deaths are low at the moment, everyone expects that they will rise,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘The question is really as to what level they will rise.
‘And at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty in what’s going to happen over the next couple of months.’
Another potential issue is the shortage of vaccination doses, because of the decision to limit the AstraZeneca vaccine to over 40s due to concerns about rare blood clots.
The data shows the rate at which doses are being administered is slowing and may yet fall further.
Leaders in areas hard hit by the Delta strain have called for more doses to be delivered but are instead seeing supplies dwindle – with Salford in Greater Manchester among areas affected.
In Salford, Greater Manchester, the local MP Barbara Keeley said in June they’d been told to expect just 2,200 Pfizer doses next week, down from 3,500 – despite the area having one of the worst infection rates in the country at the time, with more than 300 cases per 100,000.
However, NHS websites were inundated with requests as the over-18 age group became eligible for jabs, and the government insist they are still on track to vaccinate every adult by July 19.
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