Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
Everyone in England will be asked to take a coronavirus test twice a week, as a new system of Covid passports is being used on a large scale, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to reopen the economy after the closure .
Free test kits will be made available through local pharmacies, community centers and delivery services when the new regime takes effect on 9 April.
Since most of the adult population has now received a vaccine, the government believes that a rapid testing of the entire population and a system of Covid status certification will help keep the pandemic under control as restrictions ease word.
Johnson will have to set out the details later Monday before the next step to remove the curbs for businesses and citizens on April 12.
“Great efforts have been made by the British public to stop the spread of the virus,” Johnson said in a statement released by his office. “As we continue to make progress with our vaccination program and with our roadmap to carefully alleviate the constraints going on, regular quick tests are even more important to ensure that efforts are not wasted.”
The UK has suffered the highest death rate in Europe due to the pandemic and is still suffering from the country’s deepest recession in 300 years.
A vaccination program that has quickly outpaced the rest of Europe has so far given 31.5 million people at least once, and it puts the UK in a good position to reopen, even if nearby countries like France are back locked up.
Among Johnson’s plans:
- International travel can resume, possibly from as early as May 17, with a new ‘Traffic light’ system that codes countries as red, orange or green, based on their pandemic risks. The risk rating will take into account a country’s vaccination program, infection rate, virus strains and sequence
- Arrivals in the UK from green countries do not have to isolate, but must take tests before departure and after arrival. Quarantine and isolation rules apply to passengers entering the country from places on the red and orange list
- A Covid status certification system – often referred to as a Covid passport – will be developed in the coming months, allowing risky venues such as sporting events, nightclubs and theaters to reopen
- Covid certificates, which can be paper-based or via a smartphone app, will be tested during mass events, including top football matches and other sporting events, in the coming weeks; pubs, shops and restaurants do not have to use certification to reopen
- A review of social distance will be considered when families may embrace each other again, and whether Covid passports can lift the distance guidelines.
Many of the measures in Johnson’s plan will have to take votes in parliament. Johnson is likely to struggle with demands from some of his Conservative party colleagues to lift the closure more quickly, while more than 70 MPs campaign to resist vaccine passports, citing concerns about the erosion of freedoms.