By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he would plan a cautious but irreversible path out of the COVID-19 closure this week following the vaccination of 15 million vulnerable people.
With almost a quarter of Britain’s population now being vaccinated with a first dose of COVID vaccine in just over two months, Johnson is under pressure from some lawmakers and businesses to reopen the economy.
“We need to be very sensible and what we want to see is progress that is cautious but irreversible,” Johnson told reporters. “If we can, we set dates.”
Johnson said infection rates were still high and that too many people were still dying because he would pave the way for closure on February 22.
Johnson later spoke of Downing Street, saying there was not yet enough data on how vaccines affected the spread of COVID-19, although data from Israel, currently the world leader on vaccination, was promising.
“For example, if you look at the data from Israel, you can see the effect. In the UK, we can calculate an effect, but it’s much better if we can see it, when it’s big enough to see,” the chief adviser to the government, Chris Whitty, said.
Whitty also said that there are different variants that seem to slightly reduce the effectiveness of the available vaccines.
Johnson said he would do everything in his power to ensure schools reopened on March 8.
If many people become infected, there is a high risk of mutation in the virus and a greater risk of it spreading to older and more vulnerable groups, he said.
The largest and fastest worldwide vaccination of vaccines in history is considered the best chance to leave the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed 2.4 million.
Britain has the fifth worst official death toll in the world – 117,396 – after the United States, Brazil, Mexico and India.
EXIT GATES?
Britain vaccinated 15.3 million people with a first dose and 539,630 with a second dose, the fastest per capita rollout of any major country. Hancock said he expects the vaccine supply to increase as production accelerates.
An influential group of lawmakers in Johnson’s Conservative party is pushing for the closure to end as soon as the nine most vulnerable groups are vaccinated. They do not want any more rules after May 1st.
“We are all filled with grief for the people we lost, the damage we suffered, but we do not honor those we loved and lost by ruining the rest of our lives,” Steve Baker said. “We need to find a way to rebuild our society and our economy and our prospects, our livelihoods.”
Britain is talking to other countries about giving its citizens certificates showing that they have been vaccinated so that in the future they can travel to the countries to countries that need it.
“It’s going to be a lot in the mix, I think it’s going to happen,” Johnson said.
“What I would not think in this country are, as it were, vaccination passports to enable you to go to the bar, or something like that.”
Johnson said Britain would ensure mass vaccination and rapid testing for nightclubs and theaters, rather than demanding certification for normal life.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Peter Graff, Nick Macfie, Bernadette Baum and Giles Elgood)