Boris To Affirm 19 July End To Covid Policies Regardless Of Scientists’ Warnings
Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”.
Despite cases having risen to their highest level since January 2021, the prime minister is set to press ahead with the final stage of unlocking in two weeks.
In a Downing Street press conference on Monday afternoon, he is anticipated to announce that, with 86% of adults in the UK having had at least a first jab, the government will move from relying on legal curbs to manage people’s behavior to letting people make their personal decisions.
Changes to be announced include allowing fully vaccinated adults to tour to amber list countries without having to self-isolate when they return; making the wearing of face masks voluntary, apart from in hospitals and other healthcare settings; and no longer requiring fully vaccinated adults to self-isolate if they have come into contact with an contaminated person.
The school bubbles system that has pressured hundreds of thousands of pupils to quarantine at home if any individual in their bubble tested positive is additionally anticipated to be dropped, whilst pub and restaurant clients may no longer have to scan an NHS QR code.
The different strategy to tackling Covid was supported by the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who claimed it would be impossible to eradicate the disease and that the country would have to “find ways to cope with it”, as with flu.