Johnson will tell the House of Commons on Monday afternoon that schools will finally reopen in England from March 8, as well as a very limited return of social interaction outdoors, including sitting on a park bench and drinking a coffee, which is currently still is not. allowed.
The prime minister will also announce that from March 29, when schools go on their Easter holiday, further restrictions on social interaction will be lifted, allowing groups of six to meet outdoors and visit entire households. Downing Street particularly emphasized the fact that they want to give something to the elderly and vulnerable people, who have now been vaccinated, who have been held by their families for almost a year.
Downing Street stressed that these are planned measures and that should the situation in Covid-19 in England worsen, it could be pushed back and the country could be kept in a trap.
The news comes as the deployment of the vaccine in the UK continues to plague the rest of Europe, while scientific research suggests that vaccinations reduce the risk of hospitalization to 94%.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde and Public Health Scotland have examined data from people who received the first dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. According to the British news agency PA Media, the data showed that the risk of being admitted to hospitals was reduced by 85% and 94% respectively four weeks after admission. As of Monday morning, the UK has given first doses to 17.5 million people, while the rate at which it can vaccinate is increasing.
Monday’s announcement by the Prime Minister will be step one of a four-step path out of the closure. Johnson will later tell lawmakers that the government’s decisions will “take the latest data in every way, and we will be careful about this approach so that we do not undo the progress we have made so far.”
The speed at which the country will exclude will be determined against four key tests: how the vaccination of vaccines proceeds; how vaccines affect hospitalizations and deaths; infection rates remain low; new variants that do not undermine the other three tests.
Johnson will say that his priority ‘has always been’ getting children back into school, which we know is crucial to their education, as well as their mental and physical well-being, and we will also prioritize ways in which people can reunite with loved ones. ‘
It is possible that his cautious approach and focus on schools and families rather than economics will attract criticism from a number of his conservative backbenchers who have been pushing for a faster elimination from the closure since the summer. At the time, infection rates were falling and government sources told CNN at the time that the priorities had shifted from distribution to the reopening of the hospitality industry. After the summer months, infections returned and mutated the virus, which acted urgently to stop the spread.