Boris Johnson plans to scrap England lockdown rules in big Covid-19 gamble

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Johnson was due to announce changes to the rules for social distancing, face coverings and working from home at a news conference on Monday afternoon. Downing Street said on Sunday that the prime minister was expected to reiterate that COVID-19 “will become a virus that we are learning to live with as we already do with influenza”.

The move is part of the government’s roadmap to exit the lockdown which was postponed last month to no later than July 19. A final decision on the so-called “Freedom Day” will be made within a week after reviewing the latest data.

About 86% of the UK adult population has received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and more than 63% have received a second dose, according to government figures. On Sunday, the United Kingdom recorded 24,248 new cases of infection and 15 deaths linked to the Corona virus.

Current restrictions include maintaining a distance of “one meter plus”, use of face coverings on public transport and inside enclosed public places, capping the number of attendees at weddings and funerals, the ongoing closure of nightclubs, and scanning in and out of cafes and restaurants.

‘Personal choice’

The plans represent a major shift in the government’s tone, and come as Britain’s new health minister, Sajid Javid, has also signaled his desire to ease coronavirus restrictions.

“We’re on the right track on July 19 and we have to be honest with people about the fact that we can’t eliminate Covid,” Javid wrote in an article for the Mail on Sunday this weekend.

“We also need to be clear that cases will go up exponentially. I know many people will be cautious about easing restrictions – which is perfectly understandable. But no date we choose will come without risk, so we have to take a broad and balanced view. We are learning to accept that Covid exists and find ways to deal with it – just as we already do with influenza.”

Another senior lawmaker said on Sunday that face masks would become a “personal choice” in England once restrictions are eased.

“I don’t particularly want to wear a mask, I don’t think many people enjoy it,” Housing Minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News. “We will go to a stage though, where these will be matters of personal choice and so some members of society will want to do it for perfectly legitimate reasons, but it will be a different period where we make these judgments as private citizens instead of the government telling you what to do.” .

But as a new wave of infections continues to swell, concern is growing among health care experts about the impact of easing pandemic measures.

Deepti Gordasani, an epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said the government’s decision to move forward with opening England was not surprising and would again put huge pressure on hospitals, in addition to exposing more people to a “long Covid”. ”

“The government has consistently ignored advice and prioritized short-term economic gains,” Gordasani told CNN. “Even at current rates, we’re in a bind, and opening up more of course increases those risks dramatically. Not only am I saying we need to pause being open more until we vaccinate. More people, but also dealing with the current wave.”

Gordasani described the government’s plan as “largely immoral” and alarming, given “we know that the prolonged Covid-19 disease is common among young and healthy people.”

“This is not the flu as Sajid Javid is suggesting,” Gordasani said. “Please tell me when influenza has left 400,000 people with chronic disability in a 16-month period…why would we want to expose so much of our population to herd immunity through natural infection when we have safe and effective vaccines that could be giving them in the coming weeks.”

Gordasani urged the government to adopt smarter policies such as continued use of masks and investment in ventilation in schools and workplaces, while allowing more time for greater vaccination coverage before the lifting measures.

Pivoting around preventative measures as the country emerges from restrictive lockdowns is an approach echoed by the British Medical Association (BMA), which is urging the government not to “ditch the progress” and maintain some targeted approaches to curbing the spread of Covid-19 after 19 July.

Dr Chand Nagpol, chair of the BMA Board, said in a statement that it “does not make sense to remove the entire restrictions in a little over two weeks” and called on ministers not to rush into meeting the deadline they had set themselves.

“We have made excellent progress in both the vaccination campaign and individual action from people across the country over the past 18 months, and the government should never ignore it at this critical juncture,” he said.

Nagpol said that although hospitalization numbers have not risen significantly from previous peaks, the escalating levels of community transmission “provide fertile ground for the development of new variants that may be resistant to vaccines.”

He also added that the evidence suggests that one in 10 people suffer from the long-term effects of Covid-19, even if they have only experienced a mild infection, and that an estimated two million people in England are living with long-term symptoms.

“These factors can have severe consequences for the NHS and public health teams as well as business, education and the wider community – so stopping the spread of the virus in the community with a series of targeted, controllable measures should be the priority at the moment,” Nagpol said.

‘Shirking responsibility from the government’

Stephen Griffin, associate professor at the University of Leeds Medical School, said in a statement submitted to the UK’s Science Media Center (SMC) that vaccines provide a “clear path” out of the pandemic.

He added, however, that “the impatience with which restrictions are due to be eased will likely, in my opinion, amplify the number of infections we’re seeing due to the delta variant, and therefore cause needless harm along this way.”

Griffin added that Johnson’s plan, which effectively transfers responsibility for safety measures from the government to individuals, represents a “shifting of responsibility from the government.”

But not all medical professionals agreed, with others saying the case for removing all restrictions was compelling.

“There is a general consensus that Covid will never go away” and lifting restrictions during the summer – when schools are out – was the right move, Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said in the same University of East Anglia School of Medicine statement.

“Although the number of cases is rising very quickly at present, perhaps as a result of celebrations around the eurozone [soccer tournament], I still think lifting restrictions now will be safer than it was in the fall. The burden of disease associated with a greater increase during the summer is likely to be less than that during the winter.”

“Of course we have seen the emergence of new problems during the course of this epidemic, so no one can be sure of the challenges over the coming months, but we will eventually reach a balance with this virus as it has happened with all other endemic respiratory infections.”

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