UK reaches major target for vaccines just as pubs, shops and salons reopen

Britain said late Monday it had reached a target of offering a coronavirus vaccine first dose to all 50-year-olds in mid-April.

© Niklas HALLE’N
Staff serve outdoor tables in London to ease coronavirus restrictions

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK had reached “another very important milestone” after confirming that a slap was offered to all 50s, the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers, before a self-imposed deadline of 15 April.

“This means that more than 32 million people have received the precious protective vaccines against Covid 19,” he said in a statement. It will be added that the efforts will now focus on the delivery of second doses and the presentation of all adults by August.

© DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
Members of Aquabatix, a synchronized swimming team, train at Clissold Leisure Center in north London after coronavirus restrictions were eased

The British leader had earlier seen the recent lifting of rules as an important step forward in our roadmap to freedom ‘, after pubs were allowed to serve drinkers outside again and non-essential retailers and hairdressers were restarted.

© Niklas HALLE’N
Customers sit at an outdoor table in the Half Moon bar in east London

Some pubs, many closed for large chunks of the past year, wereted no time and opened at midnight, while others opened just in time for breakfast.

“I work the night shift in the hospital,” said Richard Newman, a 32-year-old doctor at the Royal London Hospital, as he was with friends outside the Half Moon bar in East London at nine o’clock (07:00 GMT) London waited.

© Clement DUBRUL
IMAGES of people in a London beer garden Londoners are roasting a significant relief from coronavirus restrictions early in the morning as the country takes a tentative step to resume normal life. England have now partially lifted the restrictions, with non-essential shops, gyms, bar gardens and hairdressers reopening.

“Hopefully it’s the end of the exclusion, but who knows? What does it represent? Hopefully a nice summer. It should be nice to bring some life back to London.”

Clothes bundled together in coats and hats sit and chat at the outside tables and order beer, wine and full English breakfasts with eggs, bacon and sausage.

“For the past few months, we could never go together, celebrate and go through it,” 28-year-old Laura Bennett said.

“I’m having a lot of fun.”

Zoos, gyms and swimmers –

In London’s Oxford Street, some shoppers braved the cold temperatures of standing in line at 05:30, two hours before the first non-essential shops such as the fast-chain Primark opened.

Hairdressers were also able to open up business, with the demand for much-needed finishes more than three months after the latest home business started.

In east London, Adam Yours waited outside Jimmy Slicks’ barber shop, desperate to lose his long hair.

“The first thing on the list is to have you hacked so you can go to the bar and look respectful,” the 22-year-old said.

Johnson had his riotous mop cut blonde hair, his spokesman told reporters.

When sports and leisure facilities reopened in England, people plunged into swimming pools and lifted weights.

Families flocked to see lions and elephants at the Chester Zoo in the north-west of England, and thrill-seekers drove to the Thorpe Park theme park south-west London.

Self-catering holidays are also allowed and bookings have skyrocketed.

Mosques, meanwhile, are preparing this week for the start of Ramadan, a zeal of the Muslim holy month without traditional community gatherings.

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The British nations all have different strategies for leaving the lockout, and the reopening of the bar on Monday only applied to England, while non-essential shops were also reopened in Wales.

Ministers, scientists and health officials warn against complacency, despite the successful vaccination being considered the most important way to prevent more serious cases of Covid-19 requiring hospital treatment.

In London, authorities are stepping up testing in the southern districts of Wandsworth and Lambeth after at least 44 confirmed cases of the highly transmissible South African Covid variant were detected.

Although Britain recorded just 3,568 new infections on Monday, more than 4.3 million cases and more than 127,000 deaths have been seen since the start of the pandemic – one of the worst tolls in the world.

The economy was also devastated by a year of repeated forced closures and restrictions, which considered new measures to ensure businesses remain open in the future.

One possibility is the so-called ‘vaccine passports’, but this has sparked debate over whether it will be effective or enforced – and its implications for civil liberties.

There is also increasing pressure for a decision on the resumption of non-essential international travel, with many eager to book foreign holidays.

Johnson said the reopening plan would be based on data, not dates, but set the next expected relief for May 17.

Almost all remaining social restrictions will be lifted on 21 June.

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