• Phase 3 of reopening in Great Britain.

    Johnson: relatives and friends return to hug

Share

May 14, 2021

The alarm continues to grow in the United Kingdom for the cases of the 'Indian variant' of Covid recorded in the country and the government of Boris Johnson is thinking of speeding up the timing of vaccinations - starting from the areas of the island most affected by the phenomenon - without even ruling out a possible reintroduction of local lockdowns.

"We are not excluding anything from the table," Vaccination Campaign Minister Nadhim Zahawi said today, responding to a question from Sky News on the latter. The overall scenario of infections and hospitalizations in the Kingdom currently remains at European lows and the country has just confirmed for Monday 17 an important step in easing the restrictions in the gradual exit path from the national lockdown of recent months. While the next step towards an almost total elimination of the limitations, set for 21 June, remains on the calendar, albeit subject to a verification of the data later.

Johnson accelerates vaccination recalls


Boris Johnson has announced an acceleration of the recalls of anti-Covid vaccines and of the first doses with the expansion of the campaign to the over 40s to face the threat of the Indian variant. The premier explained that outbreaks of this mutation have spread to Bolton, Blackburn, Derby and elsewhere, where there will now be sweeping tests. He also cautioned that the Indian variant appears to be "more transmissible, but we still don't know how much." The plans for the reopening of May 17 are confirmed, he said, without however excluding possible consequences and postponements on the definitive exit from the lockdown on June 21. 



In a new update press conference on the pandemic situation held in Downing Street together with Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer of England, the British Tory premier explained that the scenario has undergone some changes compared to his previous briefing on Monday and that it is An acceleration of the Indian variant cases traced in the Kingdom has been verified. Cases that are now more than 1300 in total and that in some areas have taken on the contours of an "exponential" increase in the words of Professor Whitty.

Johnson then noted if the variant were to prove to be "significantly more transmissible" the country would face "hard choices to make" before June 21 - when in theory clubs, nightclubs and sporting events should also reopen in the Kingdom. or public with a mass presence - assuring however that in that case his government would be ready to act "quickly" and to take "all necessary measures" to avoid new waves. "The good news", specified the prime minister, is that "there is no evidence of a greater resistance of this mutation to vaccines" available or signs at the time of a possible return of the pressure on the hospitals of the national health service to unsustainable levels. .To stave off the specter of new local lockdowns or other draconian restrictions, Johnson has finally repeatedly urged the population in the meantime to "caution" and "common sense" at this stage: particularly in the cities most affected by the Indian strain.

Germany: Great Britain returns to a risk zone


Germany returns to insert all of Great Britain into a Covid risk zone due to the Indian variant. I inform the Robert Koch Institute by specifying that the decision was taken "despite a weekly incidence of less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants due to the limited presence of variant B.1.617.2 (the so-called Indian variant) in the United Kingdom ", variant, the German institute still remembers," classified by the WHO as worrying ".