LONDON. “Now you can hug each other and go to the pub too”. In the wake of the electoral triumph on Election Day last week that pushed Labor into a political psychodrama, Boris Johnson today will capitalize on the success also on the media level. In a press conference at 6 pm in Italy he will announce that from May 17 the anti Coronavirus restrictions in England will be relaxed even more. All in line with the government’s road map which provides for a return to a sort of normality on 21 June, when social distancing is likely to disappear. “The data confirm what we already knew”, the British Prime Minister will tell the nation today, “we will not allow Covid to defeat us. We are in line with the roadmap, and the vaccination campaign continues to go very well ”.
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“Over two-thirds of adults residing in the UK have had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine,” Johnson adds, “we can now look to the future with confidence. Always with caution, but with the knowledge that these will be the last restrictions we will be subjected to. It is thanks to the British citizens, their extraordinary commitment and public health that we are defeating the virus and saving lives ”.
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In short, there could not have been a better political moment for Johnson to announce other concessions to the daily life of the British. So from next Monday, after four months of almost total lockdown combined with a massive vaccination campaign, it will be possible to go back to restaurants, pubs and bars inside, and not just outside as has been allowed for a few weeks. Museums, theaters, concert halls will also reopen. International travel for pleasure or personal reasons will again be legal, subject to the rules on quarantines on arrival. But above all, physical contact will be allowed again: in short, you will be able to embrace between family and friends, so the rule of six will return, that is, you will be able to meet again at most five other people outside your family, even indoors or in private homes. “Close and intimate” contacts are also allowed. Scotland and Wales are also likely to follow the easing of the rules next week, with Northern Ireland close behind.
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The United Kingdom currently has levels of contagion and deaths at the lowest since last September, so it was possible to respect the roadmap of the “exit strategy” from Covid. To date, one in 1,180 people is estimated to be infected, compared to one in 480 at the beginning of April. In the past seven days, the UK has recorded 14,659 new Coronavirus cases in all, 660 fewer than the previous week, and 67 total deaths (43 fewer than the previous period). Nearly 53 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and of these 17.7 million two doses. In short, everything seems to be going well, with the usual caveat of variants: the Indian one is also spreading across the Channel and is showing higher rates of contagion. But the government hopes to contain it thanks to the busy test schedule, which is now nearly 1.5 million a day.
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