LONDON (AP) – Britain’s slow but steady rise from a three-month shutdown remains underway, even as cases of coronavirus spread across Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, confirming that businesses from barbers to bookstores will be allowed to reopen next week.
Johnson said, however, that it was too soon to decide whether UK residents would be able to undertake summer trips abroad. He confirmed that the government would be testing a controversial “vaccine passport” system – a way for people to prove they were protected against COVID-19 – as a tool to help secure travel and major events. .
Four weeks after England took its first step out of the closure by reopening schools, Johnson said Britain’s vaccination program was progressing well and infections were falling. He said the next step as planned would come on April 12, with the reopening of hairdressers, beauty salons, gyms, non-essential shops and bar and restaurant patios.
“We have outlined our roadmap and we are sticking to it,” Johnson told a news conference.
But, he added, ‘We can not be complacent. We can see the waves of diseases hitting other countries, and we have seen how this story unfolds. ”
A ban on overnight stays in England will also be lifted on April 12, and outdoor venues such as zoos and drive-ins can reopen.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland follow similar but slightly different paths outside the lock.
Britain has recorded nearly 127,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But infections and deaths have both dropped sharply during the current exclusion and since the start of a vaccination campaign that has given more than 31 million people, or six out of ten adults, a first dose.
The government aims to give all adults at least one vaccine by July, hoping that a combination of vaccination and mass testing will be able to return to social events and large-scale events.
It says all adults and children in England will be encouraged to do routine coronavirus routine tests twice a week as a way to eliminate new outbreaks. The government has said that free lateral flow tests will be available free of charge at pharmacies, pharmacies and workplaces from Friday.
Lateral flow tests yield results within minutes, but are less accurate than the PCR water tests used to officially confirm cases of COVID-19. But the government maintains that they are reliable and will help people who have the virus but do not have symptoms.
Britons are currently banned by law from holidaying abroad under the extraordinary powers that parliament has given the government to fight the pandemic. The government said on Monday it would not lift the travel ban before May 17 – and perhaps later.
“The government hopes that people will be able to travel to and from the UK this year to take a summer holiday, but it is still too early to know what is possible,” he said in an official update.
Once the journey resumes, Britain will rank countries on a traffic light system as green, yellow or red based on their level of vaccinations, infections and worrying new virus variants. People arriving from ‘green’ countries will have to be tested, but they will not be quarantined.
The government is also testing a system of ‘COVID status certification’ – often referred to as ‘vaccine passports’, which allows people to travel or attend events, can show that they have received a coronavirus vaccine, tested negative for the virus or recently had COVID-19 and therefore has some immunity.
A series of events will begin this month, including football matches, comedy series and marathon races. The government said the first events would rely solely on tests, “but pilots are expected to be vaccinated and gain immunity alternative ways to show status.”
The issue of vaccine passports is widely discussed worldwide, raising questions about how many governments, employers and locals have the right to know the status of someone’s virus. The idea is opposed by a wide range of British lawmakers, from opposition politicians left to the center to members of Johnson’s Conservative Party, and the policy could be strongly opposed when it is tabled in parliament later this month.
Conservative lawmaker Graham Brady said vaccine passports would be “intrusive, expensive and unnecessary”. The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, calls the idea ‘on-Brits’.
The government said vaccine passports were anything but inevitable, as many countries would certainly have proof of COVID-19 access status. It is said that the ban on UK businesses from asking customers for similar vouchers is an unfair intrusion on how businesses prefer to make their premises safe. ‘
However, the government said vaccine passports would never be needed to gain access to ‘essential public services, public transport and essential shops’.
Johnson acknowledged that the passports of vaccines “raise complex ethical and practical issues” and stressed that their introduction is not imminent.
“We are in the process of finalizing any plans for COVID certification in the UK,” he said.
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