LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out plans to reopen the economy and eventually relaunch international travel on April 5 when he updates the coronavirus roadmap, aided by one of the fastest vaccine roll-outs in the world.
As a lot of Europe enters new lockdowns to tackle surging cases, Johnson will give an update on his staggering plan to ease restrictions within the coming months, a huge increase for one of the worst-hit nations during the pandemic.
Johnson is anticipated to confirm that non-essential retail, outdoor hospitality, and hairdressers can reopen on Apr 12 in England, whereas he will also give more details on vaccine passports and international travel.
Airlines are fighting for survival after a yr of nearly no travel, and the government’s plan to use a traffic-light system for nations based on infection and vaccination levels gives a glimmer of hope that some form of holiday could take place.
Under the current plan, international travel won’t resume till May 17 at the earliest. The Financial Times stated Johnson was not expected to set out a specific timeframe.
The gradual relaxation of guidelines will even be aided by a rise in testing availability, with everybody in England entitled to take a rapid COVID-19 test twice a week to prevent outbreaks and find those individuals not displaying symptoms.
“As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine program and with our roadmap to cautiously easing restrictions underway, regular fast testing is even more vital to make sure these efforts are not wasted,” Johnson stated in a statement.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are following their own, related paths out of a strict lockdown that was imposed at the beginning of this yr.
Britain is able to pursue a recovery after it gave AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots to more than half the adult population. A reopening of schools in March has also not yet led to a spike in cases, despite a ramp-up in more testing.
But the United Kingdom has been badly hit by the pandemic. With almost 127,000 deaths, it has the fifth-highest toll in the world behind the US, Brazil, Russia, and India.
