Despite a surge of the Delta variant across the country, the UK is entering its final phase of lifting restrictions. “Today we are going to present how we are going to restore freedoms,” Boris Johnson said in a statement on Monday. However, he called for caution, stressing that the pandemic was “not over” and that the population would have to “learn to live with the virus” as “with the flu” and to exercise “discernment”.
The head of the Conservative government is due to give a press conference at the end of the afternoon, and his new Minister of Health Sajid Javid will speak to the deputies to detail these new measures. One of them which proposes to abandon the compulsory wearing of the mask inside public places is particularly controversial.
Discos still closed
But some restrictions remain, such as the use of teleworking, the closing of nightclubs or the ban on large events at full capacity or bar service in pubs. According to Downing Street, the latest data indicates that contaminations will continue to rise as restrictions are lifted, “but the link to hospitalizations and deaths is weakened” thanks to vaccination.
Launched in early December, the campaign allowed two doses to be administered to nearly 64% of the adult population, and one dose to 86%. The government has already let go of mass gatherings to allow 60,000 fans to attend the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020 football at London’s Wembley Stadium this week, a contested decision.
An approach based on “common sense”
For several days, he had suggested that he intended to appeal widely to the judgment of the British. “I’m not a fan of wearing one if I don’t have to,” Social Welfare Secretary Helen Whately said of the mask on Times Radio on Monday. She stressed that the executive would favor an approach based on “individual responsibility” and “common sense”. This strategy is sharply criticized by some academics who advise the executive.
Thus, Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at the University of Saint Andrews, found “frightening to have a minister of” Health “who wants to make all the protections a matter of personal choice when the key message of the pandemic is not a question of “I” but of “us”. Your behavior affects my health ”. For Professor Susan Michie, a behavior specialist at University College London, the choice to let the contaminations slip away amounts to “building new ‘variant factories’ at a very high rate”.
Lifting of quarantines
Over the weekend, the British Medical Association called on the government to keep certain restrictions in place due to the “alarming” increase in the number of cases. The Unite union, which represents tens of thousands of workers in public transport, demanded on Monday that the wearing of masks remain compulsory there.
According to the press, the government should also vote this week on the lifting of the compulsory quarantine for fully vaccinated Britons returning from a country classified as “orange”, including major European tourist destinations such as France, Italy or the Spain. In the United Kingdom, each province decides on its own timetable in the face of the health crisis. Scotland, Wales and Ireland have opted for slower lifting of restrictions.