England wants to “gently” relax the coronavirus measures. That announcement was made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter today. Tonight, he will present a roadmap that will reveal more details.
It is clear that the reopening of the schools is the highest priority. This will be the case from 8 March. Then people in the open air can come together again, as the minister of vaccinations Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC.
Also, from 8 March residents of nursing homes may receive one visitor again and thus hold hands.
From 29 March, additional relaxations will follow. People may come together in the open air with six or two households. It is also possible to exercise outside in a team and people can travel outside their region.
Then the idea is that society opens up a little more every five weeks. This then depends on four conditions: the vaccination programme goes as planned, the figures show that the vaccinations reduce death and hospital admissions, the infection rates are such that there is no risk of flooding the care and new virus variants must not cause an increased risk.
In the United Kingdom, one third of adults have already been vaccinated. Johnson remains cautious, however. De Wit: “the current lockdown should be the last time a lockdown is needed, says Johnson. That can also be a lesson for the Netherlands: even if many people have already been vaccinated, it will take months before society can open again.”
Johnson is prime minister of the United Kingdom, but the other UK countries – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland-can take their own coronavirus measures. In Scotland, the youngest primary school pupils are going back to school today.
Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce a roadmap sometime in the next few days. She warned her people not to book a holiday at Easter, writes the BBC.
Wales intends to end the strictest lock-down measures within three weeks and hopes to open non-essential shops and hairdressers. Northern Ireland is looking at the possibility of easing the current measures on 18 March at the earliest.
