Johnson will tell the House of Commons on Monday afternoon that from March 8, schools will finally reopen across England, as well as a very limited return of outdoor social interaction, including sitting on a park bench and drinking coffee, which is currently not allowed. .
The Prime Minister will also announce that starting March 29, as schools go on Easter holidays, further restrictions on social interactions will be lifted, allowing groups of six people to meet outside and socialize entire households. Downing Street placed particular emphasis on giving something to elderly and vulnerable people, now vaccinated, and separated from their families for nearly a year.
Downing Street stressed that these are planned measures and that if the Covid-19 situation in England worsened, they could be pushed back and the country could remain locked up.
The news comes as vaccine roll-out in the UK continues to lead the rest of Europe, while scientific research indicates vaccinations reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 94%.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde and Public Health Scotland examined data from people who received the first dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. The data showed that four weeks after the injection, the risk of hospitalization was reduced by 85% and 94%, respectively, according to UK news agency PA Media. As of Monday morning, the UK has given its first doses to 17.5 million people as the speed at which it can vaccinate is increasing.
Monday’s announcement from the prime minister marks the first step of a four-step path out of the lockdown. Johnson will later tell lawmakers that his administration’s decisions “will be based on the latest data every step of the way, and we will be careful with this approach so that we do not reverse the progress we have made so far.”
The speed with which the country is leaving the lockdown is measured against four important tests: how is the roll-out of vaccines going; how vaccines affect hospital admissions and deaths; the number of infections remains low; new variants that do not undermine the other three tests.
Johnson will say his priority “has always been to get children back to school, which we know is crucial to their education and to their mental and physical well-being, and we will also prioritize ways people can reunite with them. dear ones. ”
It’s possible that his cautious approach and focus on schools and families rather than economics will receive criticism from some of his conservative backbenchers who have been pushing for a faster exit from lockdown since the summer. At the time, contagion rates had fallen and government sources at the time told CNN that priorities had shifted from limiting spread to reopening the hospitality industry. At the end of the summer months, the infections returned and the virus mutated, requiring urgent action to stop the spread.